Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-18
Are the People Really
The Makers of Wars?

To the Editor Of The Star:
The other night attended a wonan's
club meeting at which a very able
speaker discbursed briefly and some
what informally on the subjact of inter
national relations and their bearing on
psace among nations.
In passing, he remarked, dogmatically.
tnat IN these days, of course, govern
ments no longer made wars; that it
was the people who made them; that
the anger, the emotions Of the masses.
must be thoroughly reused before a
nation could be brought to the point of
fighting and suffering.
took issue with this arbitrary die
tun, and pointed out that for a long
time our national sentiment had been
very much divided between Germany
and England; that the decision to fight
Germany in 1917 was not made by the
people. and that, through the press and
a well organized system of propaganda,
the people had been deliberately stirred
to feeling Of righteous hatred before
war was declared. He replied, some
what eVasivsly. 1 felt, that even the
soldiers in camps, in all countries, had
to be wrought up to the fever OF want
ing TO kill although they frequently be-
came dlslIlusloned after taste of Tight
ing, and he used England as an illus
tration of a country that did not want
to fight, but that was morally per-
suaded that 1t was the only right thing
10 do.
At the conclusion Of the address q
young woman arose and deprecated the
attitude of the type Of American who
sought SO earnestly to demonstrate an
international perspective that he be-
came oVerZealouS and tended toward
disparagement Of American ways and
a h1g ~ Iii L.
OF n very interesting but thoroughly
antagoniztng article in the February
copy OF the Forum, entitled why Eng
land Dsllkes Us" which I started TO
read with something OF this air OF inter-
national indulgence. 7 am frank to
say that l soon got over it. These were
the many issues which our hostile
cousin attacked (and settled in six
pages: Our Senate'S arrogant interfer-
ence in Indian affairs; our purely COM
mercial attitude on the sentimental sub
ject of the war debts; our lawlessness.
which went hand in hand with an at
tempt to set the moral standards for
the world by inflicting prohibition en-
forcementS, the Monroe Doctrine and
the tIne example of our blue laws upon
protesting outside civilization, and our
vulgar and uncultiVated Standardization
Of living as a real menace to the culture
OF the white race particularly Eng
land). I, myself, then began to burn
with a conbative spirit such as I have
nCvlr known before. I do not suppose
there begins to be room in your paper
tor all that would like to say upon
this subject. Curiously, the most lrk-
some remark OF the protesting English
man was almost Identical with that of
our American speaker on foreign rela-
tl0ns I will quote from the Forum:
But if your motive for entering the
war was the same as ours-namely, be-
cause you felt both that it was morally
right to do SO, etc, etc"
Let me ask here why, in the name OF
uncommon sense, do the propagandists
insist upon this drivel, now that the
facts have grown cold and we are
earnestly trying to reflect clearly and
honestly on the causes CT war, so as to
avoid new wars? Every one knows, and
Bernard Shaw admits, that the English,
additionally and Enthusiastically do
what they want to do, and find moral
justification for the act after it is COM
mitted. We are, Of course, in meas
IRE, their natural offspring, and we do
have a tendency to reason that way.
But I must revert to my original con-
tsntion. that if by the trm people one |
means actually most Of the people, they |
can scarcely in all fairness be held re- |
SponSible for the wars that are de- |
clared: If taunt you, scathingly and |
persistently, and you retaliate with your
fists, am I not largely responsible? So
long as the reading public reads, is it |
not at the mercy of those that write? |
And if that which is written is not |
honest, but seeks to stimulate the emo |
lions of the masses to a fighting pitch, |
are the people really then the war;
makers?
ETHEL RAYNOR MCDONALD.