Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-26


man who suffered from forty-two
wounds caused by shrapnel told
me, gurgling with mirth, of the
manner in which he tortured
German officer who fell wounded
in the British line of trenches
while leading an attack. The de-
tails were incredibly cruel and as
1 glanced anxiously around to the
matron found her-broadly smil-
ing at the joke on the Fritz
Thus the effect on the civilian pop
ulation. / was present at the
funeral of the Zeppelin crew
which fell with their monster air.
ship on the outskirts of London.
The funeral cortege was rotten
egged by some women and the
newspaper applauded!
One/cockney in his curious
speech gave me in a startlinsly
vivid manner his metamorphis
from q normal man to the. muir
derer he then was. Indeed, he as
sured me, he would have no more
hesitancy in killing me than this
illustrating by crushing out the
life of a passing fly. One readily
believed him.
Is it this then towards which
we are hurrying so eagerly?
AS the morality of the state is
the cumulative morality of its
citizens, and as peace and peace
full relations are a desired con-
dition, why decry pacifism? 1t is
a platitude that if enough people
do a thing it is right. We know
that the prosecutions of the
Christians by the Romans dur
ing the early history of Christ's
church were caused not so much
by the conflict of a true theology
with a false one, but that they
were what such prosecutions es-
sentially are, an attempt to sur
press a propaganda that seems
to threaten the interests involved
in the established law and order,
organized and maintained in the
name of religion and justice, by
politicians, who are pure oppor-
tunist Have-and-H Holders.
Undoubtedly the greatest force
in the world is sincerity. What
greater heroism is there than
that which defies popular public
opinion in an attempt to express
that which is felt to be right
and just? Under this head come
LaFollette and his band of will
fur men-and yet, these men
did exactly what they were sent
to Washington to do; represent
their constituents. Years ago
Montaigne said: Whatever is off
the hinges of custom is believed
to be also off the hinges tof rea-
son; though how unreasonably,
for the most part, God knows"
How singularly apropos that is
at present.
For Preparedness
Preparedness? Yes, with all
my heart. Preparedness for war?
Yes for war, war against what
we here suffer from, injustice,
social conditions worse than the
world has ever known, greed and
its great counterpart selfishness.
We need not coquette with dis
puted points of international law,
which tomorrow may be entirely
discarded, for the purpose of
warning.
At a dinner recently in New
York woman prominent in
philanthropic work said to me
II see great shiploads of food,
clothing and necessities for Bel
gians go to sea; I walk through
certain portions of New York
slums, and-I laugh"
Who wants war? Do l? Do
you? l ask British soldiers, did
YOU want war? Belgians, Rus
slams, Germans and Italians and
the answer is No. No a thousand
times No! A magnificent military
preparation failed to keep France
from war, England's lack" of
military preparedness had the
same effect. Why do we not try
a moral, social and economic
preparation? Are Christ's teach
ings things from which we arbi-
trarily pick and choose accord
ing to passing fancy later to be
discarded at will, or are they
really principles which help us
TO live under any or all condi-
tions?
Slavery flourished in Rome not
so much because of the wolfish-
ness of the oppressor but because
of the sheepishness of the op-
pressed" Are we not quite like
that? Perhaps the most ironic
feature of this awful war was the
recent gift by the great krupp
works of $5,000,000 to the Ger
man Red Cross.
How often we see graft, greed,
social slavery cloaked in the flag
and criticism and investigation
foiled because of its cloak and
the inevitable brand-"unpatri-
otic!"
Patriotism is something finer
than a blatant screaming insist
ence on trivial rights. And who,
pray, shall say what are
rights? The most striking con-
clusion drawn from history is
that the judgments of one de-
cade are reversed by the next.
Let those in power think of
posterity when in speaking NOR
ally" they act legally" God
knows that man-made, man-en-
forced rules conduct ought to be
inspired by the same power
which gives rise to their moral
precepts. Calm reflection only
shows how far apart legality and
morality really are.
There are some of us who are
"crazy" enough to believe with
Christ that the best way to COM
bat an evil is not with a like evil
but with a higher ideal of hu-
manity.
The conclusion inevitably
forced on one is that il war We're
stripped of its profits there would
be no war
NEW PASTOR At DAUPHIN