Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-14
On Getting Used to War

8 far as lighting goes the war be-
n tween the Poles and the Bolshevists
finds the public in state Of what
psychology would call, in it's pedantic jar
gon. negative adaptation" Years of roar
ing and flame on the fields Of Europe
have Injured us to military sensations some
what as noises of street or factory, when
heard day after day, leave us undisturbed,
il not indeed unconscious OF them. We are
interested to see the outcome OF the Po-
land affair; we watch more or less Gu
riously the diplomatic moves and plumbers;
we sympathize with the gallant, though
perhaps injudicous, nation that is making
q last stand. But Of the fighting itself, we
know next to nothing and care not whit
This is extraordinary, and significant be-
yond measure. Imagine such war six or
seven years ago. How the, correspondents
would have sped to the front! How the
cables would have tingled and the head
lines glared! And how eagerly we would
have drunk up the bulletins! But now the
events of truly momentous battlefield stir
us scarcely more than the nursery tale
fight between the bingham dog and the
calico cat. True, there may be no very
brilliant generalship in play, and little fuel
for heroic feeling in the advance of be-
whiskered horde of Bolsheviki. Still, a
border scrimmage of Mexican bandits or a
tribal war of Hottentots would have pro-
duced columns of newsprint seven years
ago. We have supped full of battles, and
have no appetite for their terrors. pride,
pomp and circumstance of glorious war;"
Othello called it. But today there is more
impressiveness in the ripening Of wheat
field more fervor in coming to grips with
the grim visaged cost Of living. And what,
after all, is so dull as excitement grown to
excess? 81. 49,
The end Of the trouble in Poland is not
YETI all manner of unpleasant contingent
cies are bristling there. Another European
war, another World War. is not impossible
A long series Of red struggles, or even a.
lapsing black to war as mankind's normal
state is not inconceivable; indeed is not
improbable, If we fail to establish some
plan OF International co-working in place
OF the old order of intrigue and jealous
rivalry. Our civilization Is fragile thing
1t cannot withstand the shock and strain
or mans primordial instincts unless it
avail itself Of his highest urgings and prof
1t by his visions. In the very stages of his
tory through which we now move we may
be determining whether the human race is
to slip back into barbarism and jungle
darkness, or
'Move upward, working out the
And let the ape and tiger die"
How shall we secure this better part I'M
less we utilize in the affaATs OF nations as
of individuals those impulses and apt1tudes
which draw men together and persuade
them ste subordinate clashing ambitions to
the more important common interests? HOW
shall we soften strife save by Justice, how
lessen war save by cooperation? The
craftsmanship that brings this principle in
to world practice will have written most
hopeful chapter in human destiny. But II
the other path-the old path of endless
suspicious, plots and hates-is held to, wars
inevitably will wax more frequent and az
ter while will be accepted as the regular
order Men will grow adapted to slaughter
and indifferent to blood as they do to the
unceasing voice Of the clock on the stairs
We are so made that we must attend to
our higher leadings, or we shall become
unaware of them. We must live out, man
to man and nation to nation, the human1ta-
rian duties and divine faiths which we pro-
fess. or we shall lose them altogether and
with them lose progress and hope