New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-04
THE SORDID SIDE OF PACIFISM
II Is Viewed as the Doctrine of towards
and the Supremacy Selfish

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Pacifism is the most materialist.c and
sordid the most selfish and cowardly adula-
ton of the world and the flesh that ever
paraded in the disguise Of a Christian
teaching.
The fear Of death the abjcct love Of life
even though it be life Of the lowest DIS
honor. is the purpose of all pacifsts that
have encountered. Thou shalt not kill Is
their pretext, not their guide. For pacihsts
are far more interested in not being killed
themselves than they are in avoiding the Kill
ing Of others. In support of this statement
need only to point to the sinking OF the
Lusitania and the then paciiist attitude tow
ard that tragedy: "The loss Of more Ameri-
can lives in attempting to avenge the Lusi-
tania's dead children and women Will not
bring them back to ife!' Further PROOF IS
abundant in the record of Mexico for the last
four wears. American children murdered
American women worse than murdered, ana
the same old pacfst retort: more lives lost
to avenge will not bring back the dead
There was scarcely any sympathy shown for
the dead of the Lusitania and Mexico on the
O
been in dangerous places" was all that
ever. heard from any pacifst on these tragic
subjects They even displayed soS OF
venomous resentment toward all who lived
so differently to themselves as to go outside
the frontiers Of this country. They even
proposed laws prohibiting Americans from so
doing. and certainly the arch pacifst of all,
the President of the United States, made it
very evident By his foreign policy that all
Americans travelling abroad did so at their
own risk. without hope of protection from
this sordid and mercenary government.
America il it has stood for anything has
stood for great Ideals Our principles have
been literally more dear to US than our
lives. This is Christian and fine. But a
pacifst's carcass is more dear to him than
all the ideals Of civilization and Christianity.
Mr.. Wilson has talked the soul out Of this.
nation No one has yet been able to re-
vitaize the cadaver. For a man to have no
manhood is his own lockout. For him TO rob
a whole nation OF It's manhood IS a dread
full crime. Mr. Wilson first talked this ma
ton into a state in which the majority Of its
citizens openly boosted that no principle on
earth vss worth fighting for After he had
done this the nation eloried in its emascula
ton and to-day makes virtue Of It. This
disgusting self-sstisfaction in sef-inhicted
moral mutilation is psclhsm.
The supreme selhshness Of the pacifsts is
greatest in that they are willing 70 risk the
moral and Intellectual enslavement Of their
children as the price for their Sinking the
risk Of pain and suffering in great cause,
the cause Of preserving the ideals of America
Of the past For it is not their own lives
that they are gaming with so much as 1t is the
lives OF the unborn, who should have the
right Of freedom of thought as their fathers
once had in this country and still bave by the
grace OF the British feet and the armies Of
the Allies to-day.
Evidently the pacifsts do not trust them
selves. Like all towards, they visualize the
strong man or the strong nation as bully,
since they cannot conceive of any one with
power as being anything else but a bully
In their hearts they know that they, pos
sessed of power would inevitably be DULLES,
and no other nobler state OF mind is within
the scope Of their imsgnstions.
They are forever accusing the men who
believe in arming this nation for defence of
being barbarans filled with the blood lust
They cannot take anything al its face value.
Like the prurient minds of Purity Leagues"
and Leagues for the Suppression Of Vice"
the pacihsts always see some hidden and
dark purpose in the most frank and open
honesty OF expression. {. A. u.
New York; Dec. 81, 1915.