The Washington times., 1921-12-19

made war 20 monstrously destructive
and disintegrative that victory ID
swallowed up in disaster; we are IN u
world Of little nations wieldinx
worldwide powers to the general de-
sGuction.
The Struggle is to Achieve.
And II follows that II, after all. we
do struggle out Of our old-fashioned
and now altogether disastrous rival
iies and hatreds before they destroy
us, we shall still have all this science
and power, which are things that
seem now to increase by a sort OF In.
ner necessity, on our hands. So that
getting through to an organized word
peace does not mean simply avoiding
death and destruction and getting
back to "as you were." 1t means
getting hold of power by the right end
instead of the wrong end and going
right ahead. We are not struggling
simply to escape, we are struggling
for the opportunity to achieve.
Personally, do not think would
have bothered to come to Washington
or to interest myself in this peace
business, and to work and blunder
and feel incompetent and be worried
and distressed here, II 1t meant work
ing for just peace. flat. empty, simple
peace.
do not see why the killing of q few
score millions Of human beings q few
years before they would naturally and
ingloriously die, or the smashing up
Of lot of ordinary. rather ugly, rather
uncomfortable towns. or, IL 1t comes to
that sort of thing, the complete depop-
ulation Of the earth, or the prospect
of being killed myself presently by a
bomb or a shot or a pestilence, should
move me to any great exertions. Why
bother to exchange suffering for fiat
ness; the worst, least endurable Of
miseries is boredom. One must die
somewhere; few deaths are as painful
as 4 first-class toothache or as depress-
ing as q severe fit of indigestion; you
can suffer more on a comfortable death
Ned than on a battlefield; and M 3an-
while, there Is q very good chance OF
sunshine and snatched happiness here
or there.
Great Possibilities Ahead.
But what does stir me is my ,n-
vincible belief that the life lead and
the human life about me are not any.
thing like the good thing that could he
and might be. / am not SO much
frightened and distressed by these
wars and national clashes and all The
rest of this silly flag-wagging, brag-
ging. showing business as bored and
irritated by these things.
I have had some vision OF what
science and education can do for life
and / am haunted by the fine uses
that might be made Of men and Of
our splendid possibilities. / do not
think Of war as a tragic necessity but
as blood-stained mess. When think
of my Europe now, 1 do not feel like
q weakling whose world has been in
vaded by stupendous and cruel powers;
feel like q man whose promising gar
den has been invaded by hogs.
There is the pacificism of love, the
pacificism of pity, the pacificism Of
commercialism, but also there is the
pacificism Of utter contempt. Th&
Is not a doomed world we live In or
anything so tragically dignified; 1t In
a world idiotically spoilt.
Do any Of US fully realize the
promise of that garden, the promise
that can still be rescued from the
dullness Of old animosities
and rivalries which Is wrecking It.
Given unity of purpose throughout
the world, given a surcease of mutual
and destruction, de we re-
alize what science has made possible
now and here for mankind2
I shall not indulge In any imagina-
tive anticipations Of things still un-
in the scientific realm. I
will only suppose that things already
known and tested are systematically
used all over the world, that the good
we have already stored In
our laboratories and libraries is really
applied with some thoroughness and
with some community of purpose to
the needs and enlargement of life.
World Ripe for Advance.
And first let us deal with the COM
moner material aspects of life in
which there have been great changes
and improvements In recent times
and in which, therefore, 1t is easiest
to imagine still further betterment,
given only an assuagement of strife
and blind struggle and spreading
out of generosity and the feeling of
from international to
social affairs.
Take transport, that very funda-
mental social concern. It 10 ripe for
great advances. There Is all the
labor needed in the world, all the skill
and knowledge needed, and all the
needed, for these advances.
There is everything needed but peace