THE KING’S BUSINESS 77 3 religion and then morality, or “Thou shalt loye the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy .neighbor as thyself.” An article dealing with this subject, appeared some months ago in the Ladies Home Journal, written by a government official. With adaptation, we have here given the gist of it.
There is a very large and determined class of men in this country who for one reason and another are determined that we shall have Universal Military Service, not merely as an emergency measure, but as
Universal
Military Service.
the abiding system in our national life. They are determined that we shall permanently Prussianize America. The New York Sun, in an editorial rejoic ing over the success of the draft registration, says: “Conscription has been resorted to as a war-measure, but out of it will inevitably develop a system of universal military service that will prove the most nationalizing and democ ratizing force ever operative in the United States.” It is not at all impossible national life may carry the day. It is, however, to be devoutly hoped that they will not, and that the outcome of the war instead of being the Prussianizing of the United States will be the deprussianizing of Germany, and the reduc tion of standing armies in Germany and other European countries. But be that as it may, it is the height of absurdity to say that “universal military serv ice will prove the most democratizing force ever operative in the United States.” No other country has ever carried universal military service to the perfection that Germany has. Has it proved a democratizing force there ? It is the one thing above all others that has proven the death of democracy. It has also been the death of many other things that are wholesome and desirable. It is the prolific parent of countless evils. It is responsible for the present war and all its unspeakable horrors. God forbid "that it should ever become a permanent institution in our own land. A draft as an emergency measure is one thing; universal military service as a permanent system is quite another thing. Even a draft as an emergency measure is in no wise a “democratizing force,” how ever necessary it may be. It may be a necessary evil (personally we think it is) ; but nevertheless, it is in many ways an evil, and as soon as the emergency is passed, it should cease. The people who seek to make capital out of the nation’s present difficulties and thus to foist their pet plans upon the country in her hour of trial, are- traitors to the nation’s highest good, and should be sternly rebuked.
The greatest peril that confronts our young men who are going abroad to fight the nation’s battles is not from German shells or mines or gases, but from the army of vile women who are permitted to beset and ensnare the young men at the front and when in Eng
What Is the
Government Going to Do About It?
land on furlough. One of the highest officers in the British forces said some time ago that though he was not permitted to state the number, the number of soldiers who were incapacitated for service by venereal diseases would form a very considerable army. A friend of the writer, who has been on practically
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