Evening star., 1922-05-21
BY THOMAS n. MARSHALL.
Former Vice President Of the
United States.


FermeF Vice President Of the
United States.
NEVER was able to determine
with any sense of satisfaction
what 1t was that caused my
detestation for war and all Its
horrors. Ny religious principles
may have had something to do
with 1t. but men just as religious
and far better than myself have
buckled on the sword and smitten
for what they thought to be God
and the right. There was Crom-
well. with the sword In one hand
and the Bible in the other. / have
had difficulty in reaching conclu-
sion whether false patriotism or
false religion has shed the more
blood.
l was boy during the war be-
tween the states. with relatives on
both sides OF the conflict. My
family emerged from II practically
desolate. and have wondered
whether that fact was compelling
in it's condemnation of war.
In my salad days. when I was a
student at Wabash College.
joined a debating society, where
the cause one advocated was not a
matter of choice, but one of lot.
My first debate was. What has
caused more misery, war or in
= temperance" and ! drew war. My
mind was susceptible to influence
and to the fixation Of ideas. Per-
haps that youthful experience left
its mark.
1t afforded me intellectual pleas
sure to study the development OF
the instruments of warfare. The
civil war had gone on two years
before 1 gained any conception
that all the men engaged in It,
were fighting. I thought only
Grant. Sherman and Mcclellan and
perhaps. Lee, Jackson and Long
street actually fought. Trained by.
an old-fashioned Presbyterian
mother, ] had read how David and
Goliath fought. while the armies
stood by and looked on. and I
supposed that the war between
the states was similar. l visual
lied the generals in combat while
the armies cheered. Not until
neighbors OF my father and mother
began to come home in pine boxes
did learn differently. Long after
the war l heard private tell an
officer that at Shiloh he was nearly
scared to death. The officer asked
him why he hadn't got behind
tree. The private replied that there
weren't enough trees on the bat
tlefield for the generals.
Century after century has seen
the means of offense and of defense
constantly improved. The ancient
knight of steel and iron was, per-
haps. the most chivalric in the his
tory of warfare. but he could not
kill enough men. >IThere is some
thing of the wild animal in the
makeup of humans. A taste of
blood leads to a longing for more.
So the ingenuity of civilization was
taxed to enable a man to kill in
numbers and at the same time to
protect his own life. Mans In
genuity produced the machine gun,
the submarine, the bombing plane
and poisonous gas for the destruc-
ton of mankind.
+ y +
More destructive of humankind
than any of these instruments, how
ever. is the typewriter. OF all war
making, and war-waging machines,
it is the greatest. 49,.
When Sacco and Vanzetti were
convicted of murder in Bostof three
radicals procured typewriters and
sent ammunition in the form of
false charges to ali parts of the
world. Reds everywhere were urged
to organize and make an assault
upon the American government, its
laws, it's customs, traditions and
officials. These typewriters explod-
ed a bomb in the American embassy
at Paris. They stirred up riots be-