Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-11-20
BY H. GARDNER MckERROw.


A the representatives of the ma
~ tons of the earth gather in
~ Washington on the eve of the
most significant event in the
history of mankind since the coming
Of the Prince of Peace, and give en-
preston to those hopes and desires
with which they have been charged
by their peoples, there is but one uiti-
mate aspiration to be heard-for the
coming of perpetual peace
Yet even now. the clear shining Oh
this beacon is becoming obscured by
the growing confusion of the discus
sion regarding tentative policies. OF
balances, safeguards and irreducioie
minima; and the one simple formula
by which the hope of the world may
be attained at once and forever mas
not yet been spoken.
would Abolish ConscriptiOn.
Let all the nations of the earth
abandon universally and for all time
the principle of CONSUMPTION. Deprive
any one man, or aggregation of men,
of the power and right to send his
fellow creatures to war. to Kill ana
be killed, without their consent.
Individual murder is now universal
ly accepted as being without the pale
Of legislative authorization and is
regarded by all civilized peoples as
a moral obliquity to be met with
prompt and condign punishment. So
81 iy1rn l.
ing of the world, now crystallizing
into a definite. imperative and over
towering demand that the disputes
Of governments shall no longer be
settled by hurting vast bodies of con-
scripted men against each other,
equipped with every Internal lnven-
ton for the destruction of human
life, be understood as an impossible
and unthinkable degeneration.
Carlyle wrote, over fifty years ago:
What. speaking in quite unoffi-
cial language. is the net purport
and upshot Of war? To my own
knowledge. for example. there
dwell and toll. in the British Viii
lase of Dumdrudge, usually. some
Ave hundred souls. From these, by
certain natural Enemies" Of the
French, there are successfully Sc
lected. during the French War,
say, thirty able-bodied men. Dunn
drudge, at ner own expense, HAS
sucked and nursed them; she has.
not without difficulty and sorrow
fed them up to manhood. and even
trained them to crafts, so that one
can weave. another build, another
hammer. and the weakest man can
stand under thirty stone avoirdu-
pois. Nevertheless, amid much
weeping and swearing they are
selected. all dressed in red. and
shipped away at the public charges.
some two thousand miles. or say
only to the South Of Spain. and
fed there till wanted. And now to
that same spot. in the South OF
Spain, are thirty similar French
artisans, from a French Dunn
drudge, In like manner vending,
till at length, after infinite effort.
the two parties come into actual
juxtaposition. and Thirty stands
fronting Thirty. each with gun
in his hand. Straightway the word
Fire" IL given; and they blow the
souls out Of one another. and In
place Of sixty brisk. useful crafts
men. the world has sixty dead car
cases, which 1t. must bury, and
anew shed tears for. Had these
men any quarrel? Busy as the
devil il, not the smallest! They
lived far enough apart: were the
entirest strangers. nay, In so wide
Universe there was even, uncon-
soiously. by Commerce, some mu-
tuaI helpfulness between them.
How fhen7 SimpietOn, Their Gov