The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-10-20
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ed war maker. The time is coming,
if it is not already here, when the
cannon fodder of all nations will ask
themselves why they are standing in
filthy trench and, failing as salts
factory answer except defense against
wanton aggression and invasion-will
proceed to step out of it and fade
away in the general direction of
home.
The truth is that war must go be-
cause we can't afford it.
We can't afford it physically, in
spite of the amusing little pieces that
are written by apologists for war.
telling us how it improves the health
of nation. Setting-up exercises and
hygienic instructions are their major
and minor premises, the wedding out
of the unfit their conclusion. 1t is
hardly necessary to start war to
give youth the blessings of setting-up
exercises. They might be taught in
the schools. We might even have
compulsory setting-up exercises for
all males under forty and compulsory
golf for all over that age. But per-
/ feet physical condition and faultless
hygienic habits are hardly worth
while if, as soon as a man has ac-
quired them, he is sent into filthy
trench to be killed by germ or a
bullet. 1t is hard to take much in
terest in the study of hygiene when
one is covered with lice, hard to care
much about adding an inch to ones
stature when all it will gain for one
is longer coffin.
AS for the argument that war
strengthens a nation and weeds out
the unfit, one needs only a brief
glance at Europe to find the answer.
The strong young men have been
killed; the weak old men survive.
That is the war. The children in
whole nations are undernourished: in
others, young and old alike are dying
of starvation, of typhus and of chol-
era. That is the aftermath of war.
We can't afford it spiritually. The
apologists for this fine old fashion of
death and destruction tell us that it
is good for the soul. Yet never were
the pavements of the world so
thronged with poor, pitiful street.
walkers who have lost their
husbands, their sons, their all: never
was contempt for law so rampant;
never were lawbreakers so brazen;
never was morality so lightly regard
ed; never has religion had so slight
hold on the people. And why not?
When men disregard the teachings of
religion, when they license destruc-
| tion and the taking of life in the sa-
cred name of war, when they throw
common sense and reason in the dis
card and decree force as the arbiter
and death as the portion of the world
just why should they expect in the
sequence sweet, camp-meeting spir-
it of holiness to possess mankind?
We can't afford to have the mark at
cent, the Ira at four, the franc at
seven, and the pound sterling at
three-seventy. There can be no come
back in world trade while that con-
dition lasts, and it will continue as
long as France keeps eight hundred
thousand men in the field, and Great
Britain, Japan and the United States
maintain their great navies. We can't
afford to rob American business of
billions every year to be sunk and
shot up and wasted in wars and their
aftermath. Even less can other ma
tions afford their gigantic tex bills
for ornaments. We can't afford these
forty-fve-mill illion-dollar battleships
that are built out of the pennies of
the poor; these three -million-dollar
dirigibles that go up in flames; these
great armies of unproductive men,