The Washington times., 1917-03-19
A Little Group of PaeIfI.t..

rear admiral.
A Little Group of PaeIfistH.
The pacifIsts have another organ
now. 1t is called The Dawn. Like the
other pacifist publications it seems
animated by the notion that the peo-
pie who defend themselves from I'M
warranted attack are just as wicked
es the people who are the aggressors.
II America protects the lives OF her
citizens. her property, her territorial
integrity from unjustified German at
tack, America shares the blood-guiIt-
mess OF the ensuing struggle equally
with Germany
To this type OF mind a blow at in
Justice Is criminal. Christ, when he
scourged the money changers from
the temple in an outburst OF anger,
was as reprehensible as the grafters
themselves, to the pacifists. The pact
fists can have no heroes. Joan Of Arc,
opposing force to the enemies of her
country, betrayed God. Washington
and Lincoln were traitors to humanity
and to Divinity. 1t is murder when
one saves ones life; righteousness
consists OF yielding whatever Is OF fair
report and pure spirit to the wanton
and perverse will OF the beast and the
savage without a combat. 1t Is not the
savage who Is essentially wrong, to
the pacifist mind: IL is the combat
which is fundamentally wicked.
One thug that strikes us as strange
in connection with these quaint little
pacfIist groups Is that so many Of
them are disciples of Bill Haywood
and the !. w. W. They are opposed
to resisting a foreign aggressor by
force of arms: but they hope to fur
Their a social revolution by violence.
It is also interesting to note that,
while they charge those whom they
call mIIItarists with being stampeded,
they are themselves in a state of
chronic anf uncomfortable hysteria.
They probably constitute the only ele
ment in our national life today that Is
unable to discuss current affairs In a
calm and unimpassioned manner.
Their public utterances in print and
from the platform are red with san
culinary images and feverish with the
hyperbole of strife. Theirs is the
rhetoric OF denunciation OF insinua-
ton. To their mind the person who
does not believe that the country
should be left naked to the assaults
of its apparent enemies Is the paid
tool of the entente allies or OF the
munition factories; he that believes in
defending the lives of American citi-
zens Is a militarist who seeks to
imperial conquest in the interests OF
capitalists who covet the goods OF
neighboring states.
Says a.poet in the Dawn:
"I will not fight
For God, nor country, nor for flag!
am expatriated, goddess univer-
SAIL.
The university OF non-resistsnce is
at least open to argument
Another writer in the Dawn seems |
to excuse Germany for her attempt to |
unite Mexico and Japan in an intrigue
against America. Sooner or later
nearly all OF the little groups OF pa
ciflsts do eKcuse Germany. They |
can find reasons for German aggres-
sion; they have nothing but reproba-
ton for those who defend themselves
against German savagery.
What would be the attitude of these
pacinsts should the war that Ger
many has actually inaugurated
against America, by the destruction
of American lives and shipping and
by the declaration OF a blockade
against our commerce. become a two
sided war? Would theyAeep up their
fight against adequate armament,
even in the face OF battle? Would
they seek further to hamper our al
ready feeble organization, naval and
Would they continue to
exert themselves to make the de-
Tense of the country Intellectual, as
they are striving to make IL today?
What is the next phase OF pacifsm?
What card have they reserved to
play in the near future? To what
step will their frantic determination
that America must not fight, no mat
ter what her Injuries may be, impeI
them when they find America actu-
ally fighting? Will they move
overtly or covertly? What is the
plan? What Is the program? To
what new, strange manifestation of
hysteria will they treat the country
then? They are so we'll organized, SO
efficient, so Immediately responsive
to the leaders who direct their out
bursts that II Is impossible to sup
pose that those leaders have not al
ready provided a plan of campaign
that they have not already deter
mined upon me point at which thew
will fling this phalanx of thinkeks. |
What IL the pacifist program I'm the
event America Joins with the entente
allies? DON MARQUIS. !