The patriot. [volume] (Indiana, Pa.) 1914-1955, 1917-09-01
THE YOUNG MAN
AND The GREAT WAR
FOR HUMAN LIBERTY
Better to Fight for the Right
Than to See Wrong Pacifi-
caIly Triumphant.

The pacifist whole-heartedly the So
cialiSt spasmodically, have done their
best to hinder the prosecution of the
Allies war plans. +"%
Now that the great body of the paci-
fists and the minority Socialists really
believe that they are, by their attitude,
consulting the best interests of human.
ity, there is no reason, as has been said,
to doubt. But it would really be ex-
tremely interesting to know in what
way they imagine the liberties of the
race would be subServed, or the future
peace of the world assured by the tri-
umph Of the Middle Europe group.
Perhaps if they had experienced, in
their own persons, the gentle mercies
of the Turk TO the Armenian, the Bull
gar to the Serb, the Austrian to the
Roumanian, or the German to the Bel
gian, they might be less academic in
their views on the situation.
Let US imagine, for the moment, that
the powers of Europe rushed into the
war with the uncontrolled passions of
the cats Of Kilkenny. Let us try to
imagine that the great overseas dOmin-
ions are peopled with bellicOSe aristo-
Gratis and plutOcratic pluralists, intent
only on dominion and dividends. Even
then there remained still the one just
man, determined upon neutrality, the
United States Of America.
For two and a half years the just
man watched from across the Atlantic
the hurly-burly of slaughter, from the
banks Of the Somme to Bagdad, and
from the Baltic to the forests of Africa
Then one day the just man spoke. He
explained just what he thought Of the
murder of the Armenian nation, just
what he had observed of the sinister
conspiracy planned by an autocracy
running amuck through the world for
its own personal ends, and he announc-
ed that in the name of humanity, in the
name Of civilization, in the name of
right and justice, he, too, was coming
into the welter to insure liberty and
progress from being blotted off the
globe. And for this purpose he also
StAA4Cu O4C AIAo y OdAi5 4AAC4l.
When a nation goes to war it is right
that its army should be raised by
means Of the selective draft, only there
must be no question Of the complete in
tegrity of the drafters. TO permit the
burden to fall on those families which
are prompt to answer the call of duty,
whilst those who hesitate or fail are
permitted to escape, is both weak and
unstatesmanlike. A free country makes
its own decisions, and there is a great
gulf fixed between what the world has
termed the human cannon fodder of
men arbitrarily driven into the ranks.
and the self sacrifice made by a free ma
tion for righteousness sake. Men who
enjoy the liberties of a free country,
and yet decline to make sacrifices for
that enjoyment, are unworthy of the
privileges of their citizenship. The pac-
fist who can only see the blood of war,
and who holds all warfare up to repro
baton, simply values human life higher
than Principle and condemns the con-
duct Of those forefatbers who paid
with their blood for the freedom he en-
joys. What would he have done, it
may quite frankly be asked, in the hour
of the Revolution? If his ideals are
true ideals, then Paul Revere was a
mere maker of mischief, the minute
men were agents prOvOcateurs, Israel
Putnam was setting man against man
at Bunker Hill, and as for George
Washington, instead of being the Fa-
ther Of his Country, he must have
been the chief villain of the tragedy.
There is, of course, absolutely no es-
cape from the argument If it is wrong
to fight today, it was wrong to fight
then. And if it is unjustifable for
the United States to assist the Allies
today it was ten times more unjusti-
fable for France to assist the United
States then.
OF course, if any one were to main
tain this. he would be compelled to
go further and to blame North and
South alike for the Civil War. If the
action of Mr.. Wilson is reprehensible
today, the action Of Mr.. Lincoln was
equally reprehensible then. 1t was, in
deed, Mr.. Lincoln who devised the idea
Of the selective draft, and he devised
it for precisely the same reason that
Mr. Wilson has adopted it today, in
order that liberty should not perish
from off the globe. But if it is wrong
in any circumstances to fight, then it
was wrong for the English to resist
the Armada, for the Dutch to resist
the Inquisition, for the American col
Onists to resist King George, and for
the North to free the slaves by force
Of course, if the pacifists knew how to
restrain might without force, their ar
gument would be irrefragable. Of
course, if the world knew how to main
tain its freedom not by arms but
through a knowledge Of Principle, pac-
ifcism would be, not theoretically, but
in practice, the strongest of all forces,
but until it does it is better to fight for
right, than to see wrong pacifcally
triumphant.
War being, then, a necessity Of mans
ignorance and sensuality, it is best that