Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-02-21
MlLlTARisM AND THE SCHOOLS.
We publish the following clipping
by request OF Mr.. J. S. Christensen

mV1u ~oVom ANU ! TIE 0SVOOeS.
We publish the following clipping
by request OF Mr.. J. S. Christensen
OF Lake Andrew:
(From the Patriot Phalanx.)
Under the drive of a we'll financed
and aggressive military combine at
the capital city, at Washington, it is
being planned for legislation to reach
out for the children Of the United
States. They are to be claimed for
the army and navy under the cloak OF
preparedness" The mothers boys,
from the ages Of twenty to twenty.
three, are to be trained for war on the
plea OF "healthful exercise"
1.-THE thing you would put into the
life of nation you must put into its
schoola" From the public schools
has been taken the Bible, with its
teachings of love and truth and hon
esty. and it's tenderness toward the
weak. its bidding to do Justice, to
love mercy, and walk humbly with
thy Cod" There will now be an at
tempt to put into the schools ideas of
war with its pride and pomp, it's hate
and ruthlessness. Instead Of the BIZ
BILE there is to be introduced mil1tar-
ism, summer training camps, the hard
ening Of hearts, brute force, the old
law of an eye for an eye. tooth for
a tooth: all this by race which
claims to have walked some nineteen
hundred years in the footsteps of Him
whom we profess with our lips to love
and obey.
All this for preparedness" For
preparedness" there has been laid a
| burden of taxation upon us for the
payment for guns and dreadnaughts
and forts and gold-braid officers; for
submarines and airplanes and powder
and shrapnel and engines of destruc-
ton innumerable; a burden which will
Cypress us and our children and our
children's children. For these wicked
things the children must be stinted in
their food, their clothing. their educa-
ton; all their advantages and oppor-
| tun1tieS.
The militarists have gained vastly
greater power in our government, in
the past three years, than patient,
unresisting people dream; they are
now preparing to rivet it on and cinch
it down with the aid Of a money con-
trolled press, moving pictures and
legislation.
While the nations Of Europe, in a
complete gehenna of slaughter. mis-
cry and CHASTITY death, are reaping the
fruit of militarism, this nation must
arouse itself and throw off the black
destruction which is being stealthily
thrust upon it.
"Your gold and your silver are rust.
ed, and their rust shall be for testi
mony against you. and shall eat your
flesh as fire." What is the rust of
silver and gold but the waste of it for
war and destruction, for drunkenness
sin and folly?
We do not need compulsory mill.
tary training for children; We need
food and clothing. We do not need
to teach them how to kill; we need
to teach them how to preserve life
and make the most Of it. We do not
need to teach them the law Of whole
sale murder and robbery; we need to
teach them the law Of love and mercy
The law of love and mercy "blesseth
him that gives and him that takes.
The law of might curseth him that
gives and him that takes.
Germany is an illustration of the
latter law. They took the earnings Of
the people for war purposes. They
took their youths from useful EN-
ployment and taught them to make
war. They talked OF world power
and drank to the day" "The day
is here, and Germany is a besieged
nation; the grave yard Of millions; &
house of mourning. Our hearts 60 on,
to her in pity. and to all the other ma
lions dragged into the bloody ghastl,
destruction wrought on Europe toda,
by mihtarism backed by money.
, RESIST beginnings" warned the
great thinker, Thomas Carlisle. AND
resist beginnings" is the trumpe
call which should sweep the United
States today, or this nation, too, will
60 down in a welter of blood, under
the iron heel of militarism; the rus
: OF its gold and its silver which shall
: eat of it's flesh as fire. "-Patriot Phal
anX