New Britain herald., 1925-11-09
WAR WRONG FROM
 ALL VIEWPOINTS
Cannot Be HumanizM, Rev.
 ". H. AlderSOn Declares

'"War can never be humanized.
 according to Rev. William II. Alder. son, of the Trinity Nj. F. church. ir
 an Armistice Day sermon at that
 place last evening, War Is wrong
 in the result 1t aecomplishes and
 because it is unchristian. he said
 The sermon is as follows:
 Much of the difficulty connected
 with the moral issues Of war is
 caused by confusion of thought
 War as the use Of force the defense
 of oncs family, the killing of a mad
 dog, Christ cleansing the temple of
 the money changers are all inlis-
 criminately confused and the whole Iques'ion settled for some by sim
 pie illustration. Would you kill 6
 mad dog? Would you defend your
 wife against a violator? Would you oppose Mexican bandits who were
 invading your country? Certainly,
 we say. Therefore, the whole meth
 cd of modern war must be necessary and right, so runs the familiar argu-
 ment Let US at the outset clear
 the air by definition. What is war? Many definitions have been off,
 fered, but there is no one satisfying
 final and official description of war.
 T am going to take for tonight as the basis of the argument have 10
 offer definition which has been given by Sherwood Eddy in his re- cent book, The Case Against War"
 He defines war as follows: War is q means of attempting 10 settle in- Iternational or civil disputes by armed military forces through the organ ized destruction of life and property In which each side seeks to impose its will on the other by force" think several points are funda- mental: first Of all, war is 8 means and not an end. War is waged by armed military forces; then our definition must clearly distinguish between an army and police. The police is a neutral third party for bringing the criminal 10 trial for an impartial decision based not upon force but on justice. The police deals specifically with the criminal indi- vidual and the police in larger measure are absolutely redemptive, while war is inherently and inevita- ply disiructive. Having clearly in mind the distinction between the police and the army and recalling our definition of modern war, we are now prepared to examine it as nIeans of attempting to settle inter- national disputes. This war first broke out in 1914. I, like a great many of you, have been studying 1t sincerely. had a chance to ob- serve 1t in those years before we entered the war. I had a chance to see some of 1t first hand. have seen the devastated continent of Europe. have seen the horror and squalor of destruction of modern war and l have come at last to the conclusion that modern war Is al- ways wrong and that 1t is wrong for three reasons: It is wrong in the method 1t uses, 1t Is wrong in the result it obtains, and 1t is the utter negation of the Christian way of life,
 First of all war is wrong in its method. because 1t employs under the guise of military necessities all of the horrible, deadly and de- structive means that the human mind can fashion. These include poison gas. burning oil, submarines, alrpiane bombs, and possibly in the future death rays, and disease germs. l have not time here to mention the great stride that has been made both during and since the war in the perfection of these different modern weapons. Only on this last point, disease germs, can I make one quo- tation. General E. D. Swinton of the British army said: The great fu- ture weapon of the war was the deadly germ. Since the war we have discovered and developed germs which. dropped down upon cities or armies, will destroy a nation in a day" Progress is also being made in projecting electric rays through space with deadly effect There is an abundance of evidence to indi- cate that submarines and torpedoes will be vastly more destructive of life and commerce in any future war. In short, war can never be humanized; 1t can only be abolish cd. say again war is wrong in its methods because it promotes re- prisals and atrocities. As soon as the first blow is struck. 1t Is good bye to all reasons or feelings You might as well reason with mad dogs as with men when they have begun to spill each others blood In mortal combat. I remember reading a story that Las gone down the line concerning one Of the allied soldiers who had been crucified and nailed 10 a barn door. Individuals ques- toned had not seen the man, but the story whether true or false was be- licved and the word was passed along mo more prisoners" A young Sunday school teacher from one of the finest Christian families in this .SOuH'ES Nde uchCu' AIC sOu luhlH6 any prisoners on this front now?" One could not forget his laugh and his hard cynical reply, "Yes. we take a few. We need a few to give US information, but mighty few" Just what does he mean? Here Is father of family who had been drafted and compelled to fight, he believed the propaganda of his press that he was fighting and defending his family In war. He is unarmed and trying to surrender thinking of his wife and children. and your Sum day school teacher drives his bayonet to the heart and leaves that wife widow and those children orphans.
 War is wrong because it is in- evitable that both sides shall be the victim of propaganda. Modern war