The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1945-05-07
.....by
strauss
SantZ
What Did They
Die Fort

What Did They
Die For2
NOW THE WAR in Europe IS
over and we wait but the signal
to celebrate the VICTORY. Millions
upon millions of people are freshly
dead. The lives of millions more
are broken forevermore. The de-
struction is beyond the dreams Of
Imagination. And we await the hour
TO spat at the vanquished in de-
hrious outburst.
And then what will we do? When
the slaughter Is ended in Europe
viii there be any change in our
selves7 VIII we think differently
than men have been thinking for
generations? When the last toast is
Offered will we be any different
than the victors of all the wars
through the ages?
Or will the fresh stencil of death
In our nostrils awaken us to the
reality Of wars the causes
the effects the solutions?
Now We know that wars are brought
about because people in one ma
ton become maladjusted be-
cause whole groups Of people be-
come economic cancers that
must be cured to prevent them
from going berserk. Now we know
that to wait for people to go on
rampages Is the folly that neces-
states wholesale killing.
This Is war and there Is no
victor unless the vanquished are
cured. The beginning of the oper-
alton = now taking place in San
Francisco. It Is the most serious
moment In al our lives =. and
the lives Of the generations to fol-
low. Whether the conquered mad
men i've or die isn't the point Of
the operation. The patient must
be cured dead or alive.
! How Many VIII Die?
1T has been estimated that the
present WAR win cost the lives of
eight million rleo, not including
civilian deaths" says a writer in
The Analysis, Q monthly pubnca-
ton edited by Frank Chodorov, Of
New York City. what this means
In total heartache Is q measure no
arithmetic can compute.
What 1t means In the way Of
the worlds diminished abundance
Is staggering. taking into consider
alton the productivity of eight mil
Hon workers during q normal ex-
pectancy Of only thirty years.
Moreover, In the death Of these
people mankind suffers a moral loss
that looms larger than any other.
1T is In this that the human being
has been transmitted, by the justifi-
cation Of their unnatural going, In.
to . thing. The idea which pro-
Elected them into eternity is that
men do not exist as men but as
units Of q COLLECTIVELY; 1t is that
this COLLECTIVELY Is the only reality,
the only life, the only normal en-
ltity.
The nationality Of the dead does
not matter. Each swore allegiance
to flag, each fought to preserve
q particular State, each ~glorified
the slaughter of its enemies with
the highest moral sanction. If he
had any doubts In the matter, those
who sent him to his death had
none. And, most important of all,
TO avoid the conclusion that we are
al insane we are compelled to cover
up his death with the only cloak Of
nationality left-that he died for
something greater than himself.
What Is "The Slater"
what Is that which Is greater
than the individual? It has no nat
ural form, for armies can change
Its borders and treaties can COM
pletely obliterate them. 1t has no
life except that which is breathed
into Il by imaginative men. 1t abb
serbs what men produce, and can
not produce q thing on its own
account, It destroys but cannot
build. It Il q robot and therefore
completely without responsibility.
In fact, 1t does not exist. materially
or spiritually, and Is but an idea,
an idea which, IS experience has
shown. forms . protective covering
for al the rottenness the human
mind u capable of. That Is the
State.
IF men were rational beings, the
loss Of . whole generation should
impel them to root this idea out of
their minds. It cannot be q good
idea. II must be an evil thought
that leads to 90 much destruction
and misery, unless we accept the
fantastic nation that destruction
and misery ere Of the pattern and
purpose Of life. On the other hand.
II, @ seems reasonable, the essence
Of living Is harmony and its justi-
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