The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1921-03-04
A FREE. FIGHT.


must not tolerate militarism. One
who by word or deed impairs the sol
idarity of the country when it is al
grips with an enemy is dOubly its
foe; one who in time of peace tries to
keep alive the war spirit is no less
dangerous.
War is bred by talking war and
arming for it.. In time of peace pre-
pare for more peace by talking peace
and beginning disarmament. No man
dare fatty oppose program looking
to the end of the war, but the world
is always being told to wait for a
more convenient season.
There never will be a more con-
venient season. Every day that
elapses without definite action by the
Powers, every appropriation for more
ships, more guns and more gas, makes
more certain "the next war;" about
which those who have never stood
| knee-deep in the filth of the trenches
are so fond of prattling.
The statesmen of h e world
pledged themselves to end war; the
common people of all nations fought
and died to end it. That was an
open covenant, openly made. Shall
| it be nullified in secret? If one
thousandth part of the brain-power
that is applied to planning for war,
to making it more efficient" more
deadly, were applied to planning for
peace the thing would be done.
To-day the world needs nothing so
much as a course in good memory
system-a system by which the men
tion of war would Immediately bring
up in the minds of speaker and lis
tener a definite picture of a trench
half full of foul water; rotting
corpses unburied in the field before it
or half buried in the ground under
foot; men, stuck through like pigs,
bleeding to death; men, torn by
shells, crying out in agony; men
with gas-seared lungs gasping for
last breath; bullets whining low and
shells shrieking high overhead; and
over all stencil of powder and gas
and putrefying human flesh.
If the mention of war clearly called
up this picture before every man, and
he could see himself as one Of those
in the trench, instead of one of the
snug and safe stay-at-homes, there
would be no more war If the kings,
the leaders, the men who get near
enough to battles to feel their thrill
and stay far enough away to feel
safe; If the greasy ghouls who prof
iteer on death, could see themselves
in this trench, there would be no
more war. But it is precisely these
men who cannot call up this picture.
Those who stood in the trench and
who lived to march out of it are
largely inarticulate, but when they
speak they do not whoop it up for
1.-THE next war" To defend ones
country against an enemy is the no
blest of callings; to embroil her with
a nation that should be a friend Is
the most ignoble.
Wars are invariably due to stupid
ity or cupidity. Either is inexcusa-
BILE, but the bonehead is more to be
feared than the INSCRIPTIONS schem-
er for personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT. I'm
fortunately many of our leading war
makers have been both.
What many men cannot grasp
through their Imagination they are
learning from their tax bills. Others,
like the profiteers, whose hearts can
not be touched have pocket-books
that can. Their profits have gone to
hell, where they came from. Those
who were exempt from the fighting
find that they are not exempt from
the paying. But here again those
who stood in the trenches, the COM
mon people of the world, who bore
the brunt of the battle, are bearing
the brunt of the peace.
Until we stop producing so much
for war and begin to proudce more
more for peace there can be no peace,
no real prosperity. Workmen all
around the world are marching and
countermarching endlessly, produc-
ing nothing, wasting much; other
armies are toiling ceaselessly at pro-
digious tasks-building battleships,
guns, forts and heaping up vast stores
to be- wasted and destroyed. Until
they are demobilized they must be
carried on the backs, supported out
of the savings, of those engaged in
useful industry. Then, too, past and
half-forgotten wars still hold the
world in mortmain; this century is
still paying the war bills of long
dead kings and statesmen.
it must be world movement, backed
up by every man of imagination and
sense. 1t is not an idealistic theory,
but the coolest, hardest business
proposition that has confronted man
since he came out Of his caves and
cleaned up the Neanderthaler. The
Borah resolution is about the first
sign of practical constructive intelli-
gence since the day of the armistice.
1t is not big enough or broad enough,
for the rehabilitation of armies is
quite as important as the limiting OF
navies, and no nation should be ex-
copied from a program looking to
either. But we must get behind 1t
and every move like it, and for the
salvation of America and the world
use it to get men thinking and work
Ing toward the same objective.
We need a memory system for 9TH
er things, too, but first and foremost
for those women who are champion
ing unrestricted immigration in the
hope of finding a cook among the
crowd; for those Bourbon employers
who want to "liquidate labor" by en-
couraging the dumping" OF low