The Washington herald., 1917-04-22
THRICE Is HE ARMED
By IRWIN =. COBB,
of the VIGiIantes. =

Largely by chance and by accident.
happened to be one of four or five
American newspaper men who witnessed
at first hand the German invasion of
Belgium, and one of three who, a little
later. witnessed some OF the results of
the Germanic subjugation of the north
ern part of France. Likewise I was in
side Germany at the time the rush upon
Paris was checked and the retreat from
the Marine took place, thereby having
opportunity to take cognZance of the
feelings and sentiments and the impulses
which controlled the German populace
in a period of victory and in a period of
reversals.
Having seen these things, l hate war
with all my heart. l am sure that /
hate 1t with a hatred deeper than the
hate of you, reader, who never saw its
actual workings and its garnered fruit
age. For. you see, l saw the physical
side of it; and. having seen it. l want
to tell you that l have no words VITA
which halfway adequately to describe it
for you, so that you may have in your
mind the pictures l have in mine. 1t
Is the most obscene, the most hideous,
the most brutal, the most malignant
and sometimes the most necessary
spectacle, I veritably believe. that ever
the eye of mortal man has rested OIL
But If war has to come-war for the
preservation of our national honor and
our national integrity; war for the de-
fense Of our flag and our people and our
soil: war for the preservation of the
principles of representative government
among the nations of the earth-I would
rather that it come now than that 1t
come later. have a child. 1 would
rather that child, in her maturity, might
ha 1TaH nf fNyiF, in, rrt1a
teed by the sacrifices and the devotion
of the men and women of this genera
ton, than that her father should live on
In precarious peace. bought and paid
for with cowardice and national dis
honor.
Having spread the gospel of force for
so long, Prussianized Germany can un-
derstand but one counter-argument-
force. We must give her back blow
for blow-a harder blow in return for
each blow she gives US. Thrice is he
armed that hath his quarrel just: and
our quarrel is just All the same. to
make war successfully we must make -
with a whole heart. We must hold it to
be a holy war; we must preach a jihad,
remembering always. now that the Chi
nese empire is a republic. now that Rus
sia by revolution has thrown off the
chains of autocracy, that we shall be
HSnIlDS NOT only 10 punish the enemy
for wrongs inflicted and insults over
patiently endured; not only to make the
seas free to honest commerce.: not only
for the protection OF our flag and our
ships and the lives of our people at
home and abroad-but along with Eng
land, France-yes, and Russa-shall be
fighting for the preservation of the prin-
ciples OF constitutional and representa-
tive government against those heads of
ns.F,.
hold by the divine right of kings. and
who believe that man was not created
a self-governlng creature but a vassal.
Merely because we are willing to give
of our wealth and our granaries and our
steel mills, we cannot expect to have an
honorable share in this war. and to share
as an equal in it's final settlement. We
must risk something more precious than
money; something more than muni-
tions; we must risk our manhood. We
cannot expect England's navy to stand
between us and harm for our coasts, and
Frances worn legions to bear the brunt
of the trench-work.
knowing nothing of military expedl-
ency. I yet believe that, for the moral
effect upon the world and for our own
position, when the time for making
peace comes. it would be better for US,
rather than the securing of our own soil
against attack or invasion, that an
American flag should wave over Ameri-
can troops in Flanders; that a Texas
cowpuncher should lead a forlorn hope
in France; that a Connecticut clock
maker should invent a device which will
blunt the fangs Of that singing adder Of
the sea, the U-boat, and-who knows?-
perhaps scotch the poison snake alto
gether.
Maybe it is true that, in our mistaken
forbearance. we have failed and come
short. Maybe we have endured too long
and too patiently; we can strive for all
that. But
Without the shedding of blood there
Is no remission of sins.