Evening star., 1926-11-14
BY WILLIS j. BALLINGER.

BY WILLIS j. BALLINGER.
ILITARY training Of boys in
nu school for the next war is
V no preparedness. 1t is a fu-
Il tile gesture-but an eX-
pensive one. The next war
will be impersonal. Manpower will
count for little. 1t will be a war of
machines and chemistry.
Horrible disease germs will be
sprayed on whole cities, deadly gases
will exterminate for leagues, flying
torpedoes will lay in powdery ruins
the strongest fortifications-tanks
airplanes and battleships will be con-
trolled by radio.
We put machinery behind produc-
ton and got mass production. We
shall put machinery behind the next
war and get mass m rider. What
good Will II do to teach our youth
to shoulder guns that will never be
fired in the next war, or go through
maneuverS that Will never be used.
More important still-why prepare
for the next war? Why prepare for
what will be the destruction of the
white race--a feast Of death? During
the last war 30.000,0 900 men were killed
or manned in the slaughter house Of
Mars-20,o00 a Cay, 800 every hour,
13 a second. We are building an
equipment much more deadly for the
next war. All that will be needed to
start the catastrophe will be a will to
use" this equipment.
Can we hope % have a warless world
by multiplying warriors any more
than we can hope to have crlmeleSS
world by multiplying criminals? Mil
ttariZing boys in school is propagating
warriors and war psychology.
This is the way a noted woman edu-
Gator looks on military training In our
schools. DR.. Emma Mary Woolley is
president of Mount Holyoke College
for Women. DIR. Woolley has been
honored by many great universities
for her pioneer work in the education
OF women.
A Pioneer i'm Education.
When she was ready for college her
father thought Of sending her to OK
ford University. President Andrews
of Brown suggested that precedent be
broken and that Miss Woolley matric-
0late at Brown. She was one of the
FIRST two women to receive a bachelor
Of arts degree.
Today she heads a great American
college for women. She has seen the
bars OF prejudice taken down against
the education of women. And like
most pioneers-those who have been
baptized in the fire of mistaken popu-
lar rid,cule and championed what
they thought was right and forward
looking Miss Woolley still has the
habit of stating openly what she
thinks. Her courage of conviction has
not been tempered into conservative
silence now that she has become
noted.
Modern SCIENCE" began Miss Wool
ley. found man plowing with sticks
and reaplng with sickles. In an amaz-
ing few years man has progressed
from primitive methods of cultivating
the soil to agriculture implements
that produce tons in place of bushels.
Our grandmothers used to toll days
over an old-fashioned spinning wheel
turning out one yard of cloth. Today
one person can sit at a machine and
shoot out 450 yards of cloth in q day.
A single workman can do what used
to take 40 TO accomplish. Whether on
the farm, in the mines or factories,
wherever there is modern civilization,
man is constantly taking more and
more from nature in less and less
time. In America we enjoy a degree
of material comfort that is amazing,
IL we compare it with a century ago.
Progress in Killing.
But along with humanity's genius
TO produce more has gone an even
more startling progress in the science
Of war and our ability to kill more
efficiently. Having built ourselves a
paradise Of plenty, we have devised
ample means for its extinction. We
have done with chemistry and inven-
lions what would completely battle
nature to accomplish. We have made
our plaques of war more terrible and
eXterminative than any record Of
horror or effectiveness that nature
can boast of.
Man started with club. From
that primitive weapon he has jumped
TO the boomerang. to the sword and
lance, to the croSS-boW, to the flint
lock. to the cap-lock, to the needle gun,
up to a cannon cast by krupp cap
able of hurting a ball weighing 1000
pounds through IS inches of solid
eteel-up still further to monster guns
that kill at IS miles-up to innocent
looking bottles that when dropped re-
lease billions of invisible diseased
soldiers-up to flying torpedoes, aerial
bombing, submarine warfare"
''Is there any way that we measure
The increase in our efficiency to kill?'
asked.
There are some figures that will
show this. What l am trying to en-
phasiZe is that In the last half CEN
tury man has made gigantic strides
in the art of killing in war-strides
that make his efficiency in production
look pismy in comparison. Our eff
cheney to kill has leaped far ahead
of our ability to produce for the COM
fort of humanity. Our rate Of de-
struction is overshadowing our rate of
production for life and comfort. Fur
thermore, our efficiency to kill is men
acing our efficiency to produce. Why
produce more and prepare for a hap
pier world, one with more comfort
and ease, when suspended over our
head is a sword of destruction which
when it drops will make our produc-
tive efforts useless?
Ancient Ineffectiveness.
tsTIets take a few snapshots down
the pathway OF progress in the art OF
killing. Three thousand years ago
the great hosts of Darius, on the
famous plain of Marathon, fought all
dav long and succeeded in diSpatching
only 1872 Greeks. If the modern art
OF murder had been employed on that
memorable occasion one Of Darius
henchmen could have seated himself
comfortably behind a machine gun and
,ifspatched .ta. number in about two
minutes work Or Darius might have
taken his ships and put out % miles
TO sea and dropped a shell in the
center of the Greek Army and killed
many more than 1872. Or he could
have sent up an aeroplane, dropped
a little gas and sailed for home, leaV-
lag the vultures a handsome oppor-
tunity 1t was a pretty slow killing
in the days Of Darius, however.
when knighthood was in flower it
was no uncommon occurrence for
knights to take a couple of days or
terrific smashing Of tinware to effect