Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-09
MILITARTSM is DYING OF .
ITS OWN GREAT MADNESS
imperial War, the Most Ancient
Sport Of Kings, is Detested by
the Masses Everywhere

A DVENTURES Of military aggres
"A sion in the Old World are proving
quite as futile and costly now as they
have always been in the past.
Pessimists have been looking toward
Japan and whispering of another great
war. They saw large army, un
touched and strong a formidable navy
and great financial and material re-
sources. Thty did not reckon with a
new spirit Of insurgency that hatred Of
modern warfare has created in the
plain people Of all countries.
The Japanese authorities have just
drawn down the veil of heavy news
censorship to conceal the confusion
caused by the newer military ambitions
of one of their controlling groups. They
spent $400, ,000, 900 in the Siberian ad =
vance, which was frankly intended as
movement of conquest in Russian ter
ritory. They lost hundreds of thou
sands of lives. Yet they have gained
nothing tangible or sure. Russian re
sistance-and it ought always to be
remembered that the present wars are
being fought by all Russians together
and not by the Bolshevist minority
alone-involved for the japanese. as
it has involved for Poland, great sur &.
prises and terrific loss.
A fare of revolutionary sentiment
followed upon the partial collapse of the
Siberian scheme. The masses in japan
had been feeling the cruel economic
pressure which war always brings to
the poor. they suffered additional dis :
comfort because of an industrial and
financial collapse caused by the failure
of schemes of expansion engineered at
enormous cost. A large element in the
population resented the Russian ad E.
vance on ethical grounds. There are
signs of panic at Toxic and rumors of
unrest in every part of the country.
The group which was responsible for
the aggressive militarism of the new
Polish state has been an affliction to
the people. Poland has suffered great
reverses, great financial loss. And dan
gerous friction has been caused between
the Polish rulers and the allied gov
ernments which sought to work with
them in complete harmony for good
and rational ends.
war has become losing game for
everybody simply because the conscience
OF the world rejects it. In it's. modern
forms it is a madness and u horror.
Moreover. it is inefficient.
There are few men in Europe, great
or small, who do not know this. The
last FIVE years fixed a conviction that
has been growing throughout the world
for century. SO the minds that lead
nations have one overwhelming pre
occupation. They are seeking a sub
stitute for the great military force that
once was necessary to protect govern
mcnt and hold civilization together.
That aim is reflected variously in the
scheme of the League of Nations, in
the plan for n World Court now being
formulated at The Hague. where Elihu
Root is sitting for the United States,
In the doctrines Of the British Labor
party and like organizations.
Fear of war and loathing Of il
underlie all the popular insurgcnt
movements in the Europe of today.
Mass opinion has outlawed the most
ancient sport of kings.
That is natural enough. For war
nowadays involves not only the armies
III action. but the peaceful population
behind the lines, the defense,css. the
noncombatant and the innocent. There
was time when battles were fought
on distant frontiers and when the ma
lons concerned were permitted to live
as II nothing strange were happening.
But with modern weapons and methods
OF transport battlefield will ipeyita
bly, be as wide as the countries that
engage in strife. No part of the popu-
lation Is immune. No part ever can
be any more. Experts in the arts Of
annihilation are already talking of dis
ease bombs and the manner in which
typhoid, cholera and smallpox germs
may do the work that INT did in
France-and do it more terribly.
lhere is no chivaIry in modern battle.
Inc pest correspondents at the front in
France could not reconcile themselves
TO the spectacle Of exquisitely quar-.
tered STATS. rolling in luxury. fifty or
hundred miles from the front and
directing millions of cold and hungry
men in huge game of slaughter by
factory methods.
II WASH glorious. that spectacle,
And is 1t fair to believe that any peo.
nI"S-British, French, Italian or, on
the other hand, Russian and Japanpse
Will over again for any reason con.
done great wars. in which not only the
armies but the whole general popuIa-
ton are given up to slow obliteratIoD
and starved and impoverished mean.
while through demands made upon their
energy and their resources to sustain
the agencies and instrumentalitips bv
which they themselves are tortured and
destroyed?
Instructive reactions in the minds of
common men in all countries have i'm
posed upon statesmen the task that
now engages them. But a substitute
for war is not easy to find. II never
will be found If peoples do not consent
to translate their convictions into CON
Structive thought and systematic en-.
deavor. The printed word ought prop.
erIy 10 be the ultimate weapon in dis.
putrs between nations, since it is only
by common understanding that intcrna-
tional peace is possible.
war alone cannot stop war. though
We were asked to believe that it could
The hope Of the world lies in better
general education. Man has progressed
far enough on the road to knowledge
to realize that those who tell him that
he must settle his affairs by the meth
ods of the jungle brute is a liar. What
he needs now is to impress this convic-
tion upon his governments. That be
has begun to do through a silent and
general rebellion against yyar