The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-03-23

velop in that boy, not only unthink-
ing physical obedience to his officer,
but unthinking obedience in general
to authority, to that Of the employer,
the boss, the politician, the state, the
force above him, whatever that force
may be.
On the man who has gone through
this process, say, there is left an
indelible impression, an impression
stamped into his nature, which he will
carry with him all through his life. If
you make a machine of a man in one
thing, you make him a machine in all
things. And this is exactly what
compulsory military service is in
tended to do. General Organ, it's
principal advocate in New York State,
says we must put the recruit
through the biological and social
process by which he becomes a sold
ier." He says, eve must get our men
so that they are machines, and this
can only be done as the result of a
process of military training" That
is the ideal, and not only the ideal,
but the immediate intention of the
advocates of compulsory military
service.
am not against every necessary
kind of defensive military prepara-
tion for this country. l am not an
extremist. I value the safety of
the United States as much as any
member of the Security League, but
I earnestly believe that, if we adopt
the wholly unnecessary expedient of
compulsory military service, it will
do for us substantially what it has
done for Germany. 1t will cripple
the initiative and independence of the
average citizen, enslave labor, and
build up the mastery of the privil-
eyed, military and official classes.
This is not a guess or vague proph-
ecy; it is simply the reasonable work
ing out of practical human law
a law that the governing classes of
Germany have fully understood and
employed to the limit of their abil-
ity.
On the Goth of February, l received
letter from Professor Jacques Loeb.
Professor Loeb, as you know, is to-
day perhaps Americas most distin-
guished biologist. He is the head of
the department of biology of the
Rockefeller Institute, a recipient of
the Nobel prize, and a keen and prac-
tical thinker. | had asked him what,
in his opinion, was the effect of mill
tary training in Germany, and what
would be it's effect if introduced here.
He replied:
"It is an actual experience in
Germany that men who have received
that drill are afterwards much more
willing tools of anybody whom they
are liable to consider as belonging to
the officer class or caste. The Ger
man Junker has no difficulty with
young men on his estates if they
have served in the army. His mere
imitation of the voice and manner of
an officer who gives command at
once cows his slaves into submits
sion. This is the way by which the
German Landrat or bureaucrat in
general rules the masses. * The
greatest danger of militarism lies
exactly in the direction you indicate,
the abolition of initiative and spirit
of freedom. Germany shows that
even the highest development of mod
ern science is not able to overcome
the conditional refieXes produced by
militaristic drill and by the glorifca-
tion of the military intriguers and
eXploiters in nursery and school,"
81 have been depressed over the
recent developments in this country.
| left Germany because I felt that
could not live in regime of oppres-
sion such as Bismarck had created at
the time / left Europe. When
reached America l felt like free
being. 1t is keen disappointment
to realize now that my sons are like
ly to face the same tyranny in this
country, to which | had come in the
hope that it would remain free from
the curse of that personal despotism
which finds its expression in mill
taristic regime"
/ Many sincere believers in compuls-
ory service point to France as a coun-
try where universal service and de-
mocracy have existed side by side
This is, to large extent, true, al
though before the war, democracy in
France had begun to feel the effects
of military service and there was q
strong movement to abolish it, which
Oh L.. 4. n