The Detroit times., 1917-06-19
The Passover
~ Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright 1915. by Frank Crane)


And the Lord God said unto men: Get
togetherl You cannot exist as separate
units. You cannot exist as separate
groups. You can only continue to exist,
TO grow, and thrive as one humanity.
Humanity is one even God is one.
you have learned to love the family.
You have learned to love, to prize. TO die
for, the nation 1t is not enough. You
must learn to love, to live for, to feel,
humanity
Thus spake the eternal law.
For this came prophets. poets, seers,
into the world, teaching men 70 realize
that in their oneness alone lay their hap
piness.
For there has never been any prog
ress without cooperation; neither has
there been any safety, any health, any
peace.
Devotion 10 humanity never raised an
army, never hanged a criminal, never
tortured hereto never robbed the poor
never fostered endowed parasites.
But men would not listen. They were
blind, deaf. ignorant. They still believed
in competition, in national vanities, in
superior races. in supemen, in force, in
the manifest destiny of certain privileged
ones to rule over the commons.
They grew heated over national pride,
and rallied around war-cries of German
kulter, Anglo-Saxon supremacy. the pow
er Of Russia. of China, of Japan. Of
France of this or that race or section.
Then God said q must send my
ploughshare deep into this race, else they
will not learn They win not understand
by reason; they must be made to under
stand by pain and terror"
So came the Angel Of the Passover,
dark-winged and full of horror
And he passed over the earth.
And where he went there was weeping
and wailing
Lives were blighted; hopes eXtinguish-
ed. love blasted. Mothers shrieked over
the dead bodies Of their sons The light
of a million homes was put out. Innu-
merable hearts were crushed, as grapes
in the wine press.
The faircst and first-born were plucked
from the family and sent TO die in
bitches. The glory and strength Of hu-
manity rotted on no mans land between
the trenches And the rats ate them,
and no one tended them but the fowls Of
the air.
The workshops Of the world sweated
with the making Of distinctions en-
gines.
Fathers and brothers Of women died
like flies in sinking prison camps.
The sea was choked with the drown
ing. The-soil was soaked with the blood
Of the slain.
Famine stalked abroad in every land.
Bankruptcy was everywhere.
Never since the world began was such
frightfulness, such prevalence of woe.
And at last, when the ploughshare had
sunk deep enough and the dull conscious
ness of men at last was touched, they
began to awake, and ran together, say
ing;
1--WE must unite or perish. The glory
Of this nation or that must no longer
be sought lest the world be destroyed.
''The power Of Germany must be sub
ordinated TO the common good. But
that is not enough. Such an outbreak Of
national vanity must never again be pos
sbIe by any nation.
England, America. Japan, Russia, all
as well as Germany, must be brought
under the rule Of mankind
So they made the Parliament of Man,
the Federation of the World.
But not until the Angel of the Pass
over had smitten them.
They could not see destiny's law until
they felt its teeth and claws.