Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-24
Shall War or Civilization Be the
Goal of the World?

TT is grim saying, but certainly not
far from the truth, that if civilization
does not abolish war, war will abolish
civilization.
Your parlor optimist will argue that
while the day can never dawn when ma
tions really will beat their swords into
plowshares, still as time goes on, they will
do much to soften the cruelties and hor-
rors of battle. 1t is visionary, he argues, to
expect any sort of international co-working
to do away with war, but a great deal
can be done toward mitigating it when it
comes. Wherefore, he concludes, let US cease
efforts at prevention and apply our benevo-
self.
Comfortable as this belief may be to him
who holds it, your frank militarist knows,
howsoever humane he himself may be, that
war is and can be nothing less than what
Sherman called it; and that, far from sea-
soning it's gall with mercy as the play I'M
folds, it will wax more bitter, more des-
olating, more terrible Writing in a recent
issue of the Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution, of England, Major Cen
eral Swinton declares: 81 imagine from the
progress that has been made in the past
that in the future we shall not have re-
course to gas alone, but will employ EV-
cry FORCE OF NATURE THAT WE
regard it, is germ warfare. think it will
come to that; and far as I see there is
no reason why it should not, if we mean
to fight"
Just so. If men mean to slash one an
others weasands through, why split hairs
ever mere details of the performance? If
they mean to launch upon vast adventure
OF disembowel1ng one another, why scruple
over the precise gestures to be used, if
only they are effectives ones? What mat
tiers 1t whether an explosive bears foul or
fragrant odors when it is to be employed
in blowing human bodies to red bits? In
war the one great practical objective ever
was and ever will be TO KILL. No shining
tournament or knightly combat but stark
slaughter is warfare's substance and sum,
whether it be waged in jungle deeps with
tooth and claw, or with marvels of science
inSsound of heaven-chiming spires. Indeed
the more scientific it becomes the deadlier
1t grows, it's very refinements sharpening
its inflictions. Wolf fangs could not COM
pare with the raveninggs of poison gas.
And if authorities like General Swinton
are correct, poison gas will not compare
with the engines and terrors of destruction
yet to come. Not as a Prussian, not as an
advocate apologist for ruthless war
fare but simply as a competent and candid
observer, he declares "The Napoleons OF
the future will endeavor to wipe out their
opponents en- masse, and in the nature OF
between the fighters and the noncombat-
ants. Entire communities and large parts
of nations may be destroyed" If this ap-
pear scarcely thinkable, reflect that less
than ten years ago resort to such methods
and devices as Germany initiated in the
late war would have seemed well-nigh un-
imaginable. The Hague Conferences repeat
eddy had emphasized the humanitarian OBJ
legations resting upon every belligerent and
through specific agreements to which Ger
many was a party had forbidden "the use
of poison, the killing of wounded, the de.
NAL OF quarter pillage, unwarranted requi-
sltions In conquered territory, and the use
OF weapons designed to cause superfluous
injury Yet hardly had the Kaiser's legions
crossed their frontier before these humane
1nhlb1t1ons were going the way of scraps Of
paper.
The Prussian idea of war is repugnant t.
civilization; but it is the logical idea O
war, the idea that inevitably will prevail
war continues. One cannot consistently hat
Prussianism without hating war, nor con
sistently condone war without condonin
Prussianism. The two are virtually synony
NOUS Each turns to brute might; eac
abandons what is distinctvely and progress
sively human. There have been righteou
wars, none more so than that upon whicl
America embarked in the springtime
1917; but war within itself cannot be 9th
er than savage and destructive of the fail
est fruits Of mans hard journey up tn
aeons. He must choose between his impuls
to destroy and his ideal to build, betwee
the voices of his shadowy past and those O
dimly omened yet divinely possible flu
ture. BY some means or other he must g
forward without war, or he will go back
ward without civilization.
A