Evening star., 1939-12-10
Combative Youth Outgrown,
Allied Countries Dislike War
Middle.Aged Germans Also Eager for Peace,
but Young Have Upper Hand in Reich
and World Pays Price
By Thomas r. Henry.

The masses Of Great Britain and
France showed from the first an in
tense distaste for this war.
They made no effort to conceal their
repugnance. There was almost COM
plete absence of enthusiasm The two
nations were like patients taking doses
Of bitter medicine. This was COM
mented upon by many observers The
attitude was so obvious that there have
even been accusations in this country
that it Is "fake war" It doesn't fit
into the pattern picture of armed con-
flict engraved on the folk mind-a pic
ture highly colored with military pagean-
try, heroic exploits, bands marching,
folks cheering, flags flying. Even the
dismal monotony which characterized
such long interludes of the World War
failed to erase this picture.
The two allied nations are much less
war-minded than in 1914. They are less
inclined to war than was the United
States in 1917. They endured provoca-
ton piled upon provocation before re-
sorting to arms, and almost any one Of
these provocations would have started
the guns booming 20 years ago. They
even allowed their honor to be ques-
tioned, as Austria, Sudetenland and
Czecho-Slovakia were sacrificed to keep
the peace. Have the two countries
gone soft?"
There are doubtless many reasons for
their behavior. One fundamental one,
perhaps In the final analysis the most
fundamental of all, seems to have been
overlooked, although sociologists have
been predicting it for years. This rea-
son is that the two foremost nations
Of Western Europe have outgrown their
combative boyhoods and are approach
ing rapidly that restrained middle age
when men are loath to fight and almost
never fight for the fun of it.
Average Longevity Increases.
For nearly two generations the BIRTH
rates In France and England-France
especially-have been on the decline.
At the same time the average longevity
has increased with the conquest by
medical science Of the scourges of
childhood and adolescence and the de-
velopment of better sanitation and
healthier ways of life. This can have
only one result. The average age of the
average citizen of either of the two
countries is greater than it was in 1914,
almost the start of the growing -older era.
This affects profoundly the national
attitudes. John Bull, having reached the
age when he values a good dinner and
a soft bed more than thrilling adventure,
doesn't relish the mud and snow between
the Rhine and Moselle. The same is
even more true for his old neighbor, with
whom he used to scrap so enthusiastic
ally. AS long as ten years ago France
prepared to fight the next war in relative
comfort. If there must be a next war,
and constructed the centrally heated
Maginot Line with this end in view.
The same condition, for good or bad,
exists in the United States, Belgium,
Holland and Scandinavia. The whole
Western world is growing older. If con-
ditions were somewhat different this
might be the best guarantee for the
future peace Of the white race and this
might well be the last major war. This
doesn't mean that nations whose youth
Is past, any more than individuals in
the same category, are any more moral
than nations the average age Of whose
citizens falls somewhere in the late
teens. They are apt to be even more
deceitful and avaricious. But they are
much more likely to transact their busi-
ness around the council table than on
the battlefield. When two schoolboys
fall out they settle it with their fists.
When two bankers fall out they settle
it in the courts
Germany should, except for a peculiar