The Detroit times., 1917-04-20
Think Clearly
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crans)


There would never be hot dispute be-
tween intelligent persons IL they would
stop TO define their terms.
Most quarrels are over the meaning Of
words.
IL looks now as IL there were serious
difference of opinion among Americans.
There's deal of loud talk, red faces, de-
nouncing, and name calling. but when
you come TO sift the matter both vocifer-
Gus sides mean about the same.
Suppose we define. Let us cool of a
moment and see what We are talking
about.
What is a pacifst? There are many
varieties. The kind that throws Mr..
Roosevelt into a compton, the kind that
General Wood and Mayor Mitchell objur-
gate, amid loud and prolonged applause,
is the timid, cowardly, bloodless person
who will let you pull his nose and say
thank you. They won't fight because
they are afraid. They are mollycoddles
and milksops.
Perhaps such creatures exist. I do
not know any personally, still it is con-
celvable that they exist. But IL so their
number must be extremely small, and
they surely are insignificant; why waste
wrath on theml Why shoot at canary
birds with howitzersl
There are those also who call them
selves pacif1sts because they believe that
the ultimate aim of all governments
should be peace. In that sense / sup
pose every man outside the insane asy-
lum is a pacifist- Nobody wants war per
Sc Even Germans claim they make war
only TO secure peace.
On the other hand, there are no mill
tarists in this country, II we mean by
the word the desire TO institute here the
kind of military system they have in
Prussia.
There are those, however, who think
we ought TO be military enough TO resist
invasion or an unjust attack upon our
ships at sea, or any other attempt by a
foreign government to force Us to do
what we do not conceive 10 be right.
And in that sense almost every human
being in the United States is military,
even Henry Ford and Mr.. Bryan.
The trouble is we love to pose and 10
gain applause and to be looked on as
grand and fearless and patriotic, and we
want TO defy somebody and make big
noise generally. All Of which Ia a bit
cheap
Also it's apt to become nasty, when
we accuse those who differ in emphasis
or policy from US as traitors, towards,
or German spies. There's lot Of dirty
work can be done under the cloak of
patriotism.
My own position Is that while we
should take reasonable measures to in
sure the safety Of our country and its
citizens, and be intelligently prepared to
resist any assault that may be made up
on US, it's vastly more important that
we should do what we can to establish
an orderly World Government, removing
the armed force from the separate
countries and placing it under control Of
an international court, as this is the
only imaginable way in which wars can
be made to cease; that this is the true
American idea, since 1t is the one in
practice among our states; that IL We
moved toward this the war-torn nations
would gladly follow our example; that
no conceivable project could do so much
good TO the human race; that the world
is ready now for this as never before;
and that, while the patriotism Of our
people is assured and needs no infaming,
it is vitality necessary to create an en-
thusiasm for humanity, for the disarn,-
ament OF the nations, for the establish
ment of the Federation Of the World,
and for putting stop, once for all, by
common sense and organization, to the
curse Of war.