Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-06-06
is
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of living, high moral level, good
life based upon those general cOndi-
tions which make human beings
happy. In other words. let us hasten
social evolution. decent and good liv-
ing. There are plenty of problems
facing us, the solution of which viii!
utilize the noblest elements in any
man. Let us sublimate whatever
combative elements there are in us
humans by redirecting our main
springs to action into the battle
against those elements and forces
which hinder man s. progress and
which. if defeated, will destroy us.
War itself. and especially those
forces which create war, are just
such forces. 1t takes more courage,
more decency and more intelligence
to fight against war than to fight in
a war. A war against war. is an
evidence of courage and bravery.
Above all an attempt to establish a
state of peace is an evidence of a
Christian spirit and intelligence.
II have said a considerable amount
about the instructive, warlike, or bel
ligerent characteristics of man which
may be misdirected into the war of
battlefields or which may be sublim-
ated for the struggle for social pro-
gress. Something should be said
about the function and purpose Of
intelligence in the general scheme
as it pertains to war. Shall we be
governed by our impulses or by our
intelligence? Our answer to that
question depends ON our interpreted
ton of the plan of nature. 1t seems
to any student of the biological sci
ences, and to any interpreter of their
psychological implications, that our
instincts and impulses should be
subordinated to our intelligence. In
the development of man the differ
entiatiOn of the brain was the last to
develop. AS man gains intellectually.
dinated more and more. 1t is time
to consider this problem of war ra-
tionally and not emOtiOnally. We are
taking a step backward when certain
organizations blacklist speakers be-
cause they believe in solving our
problems by intelligence rather than
by force of arms.
War no Solution of Problems.
ut appears to me that there is one
indisputable fact which appeals to
the intelligence of any one. and that
is that war is futile, that it does not
solve our problems, and difficulties.
We have had wars, and more wars.
and still the problems we set out
to solve by means of wars remain I'M
solved. In fact, we have had wars in
recent times and have good prospects
of having in the near future not only
more wars. but wars that will bring
greater magnitude Of suffering than
in the past.
Consider the recent World war as
an illustration of this point. We, the
U. s., fought the last war to end all
wars. We fought it to end autocracy
and the war lords. We fought to de-
stroy ornaments and the machinery
of war. 1t was necessary to defeat
Germany, we were told. because the
German nation was so heavily armed
that she was threat to peace. AS
an ex-soldier of the World war. who
saw action on foreign soil. l recall
those noble promises. and l sense
their unfulfillment with bitterres
Instead of disarm ament, perpetual
peace, world democracy, we have the
opposite. Almost all nations. includ-
ing our own. are spending more fol-
ornaments than they did before the
struggle which began two decades
ago. Not peace, but wars. have been
the fruits of the last war. Wars
have been staged between various ma
tions almost continuously since the
World war came to its dramatic end
Within twenty years, we have beer
treated to a shift of war scene to in
clude South America, Asia and the
Near East. We have war today and
we have reasonably good prospe cts
, that we shall have war on a large
scale in the none too distant future
.. Instead Of Democracy being estab
! lished. countries have broken dowr
and the rule has been usurped by de