The Detroit times., 1917-04-20
Think Clearly
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. BY Frank Crane)

mere would never be hot dispute be-
tween intelligent persons if they would
stop to define their terms.
Most quarrels are over the meaning of
words.
IL looks now as if there were a serious
difference of opinion among Americans.
There's deal Of loud talk, red faces. de-
nouncing, and name calling, but when
you come TO sift the matter both vocifer-
Gus sides mean about the same.
Suppose we define. Let us cool off a
moment and see what We are talking
about.
What is pacifist? There are many
varieties. The kind that throws Mr..
Roosevelt into a compton, the kind that
General Wood and Mayor Mitchell objur-
gate, amid loud and prolonged applause,
is the timid, cowardly, bloodless person
who vii, let you pull his nose and say
thank you. They won't fight because
they are afraid. They are mollycoddles
and miksops.
Perhaps such creatures exist. | do
not know any personally, still it is con-
ceivaole that they exist But if so their
number must be extremely small. and
they surely are insignificant; why waste
wrath on themI Why shoot at canary
birds with howitzers?
There are those also who call them
selves pacifsts because they believe that
the Ultimate aim of all governments
should be peace. In that sense | sup
pose every man outside the insane asy-
lum is pacifist Nobody wants war per
Sc. Even Germans claim they make war
only TO secure peace
On the other hand, there are no mill
tarists in this country, if we mean by
the word the desire to institute here the
kind of military system they have in
Prussia.
There are those, however, who think
We ought to be military enough to resist
invasion or an unjust attack upon our
ships at sea, or any other attempt by
foreign government to force us to do
what we do not conceive to be right.
And in that sense almost every human
being in the United States is military,
even Henry Ford and Mr.. Bryan.
The trouble is we love to pose and to
gain applause and TO be looked on as
grand and fearless and patriotic, and we
want 70 defy somebody and make big
noise generally. All of which is a bit
cheap.
Also it's apt to become nasty, when
we accuse those who differ in emphasis
or policy from us as traitors, towards,
or German spies. There's a lot Of dirty
work can be done under the cloak Of
patriotism.
My own position Is that while we
should take reasonable measures TO in
sure the safety Of our country and its
citizens, and be intelligently prepared to
resist any assault that may be made up
on US, it's vastly more important that
we should do what we can TO establish
an orderly World Government, removing
the armed force from the separate
countries and placing it under control Of
an international court, as this is the
only imaginable way in which wars can
be made to cease; that this is the true
American idea, since it is the one in
practice among our states; that if We
moved toward this the war-torn nations
would gladly follow our example; that
no conceivable project could do 80 much
good to the human race; that the world
is ready now for this as never before,
and that, while the patriotism Of our
people is assured and needs no infaming,
it is vitality necessary to create an en-
tnusiasm for humanity, for the disarm-
ament OF the nations, for the establish
ment of the Federation of the World
and for putting a stop, once for all, by
common sense and organization, to the
curse Of war.