THE KING’S BUSINESS
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have brought home to them their obligations to the State, let it be through organizations that foster democratic citizenship, not the undemocratic, feudal ideals o f an army. If they need to be taken out o f doors and developed -in muscle, in skill o f , eye and hand, in physical endurance, let us be frank and set out with that aim in plain view, not drag in an .accursed- military regime under the guise o f harmless gymnastic drill and summer outings.. One would not say a word in disparage ment o f noble soldiers o f the past who have cjisplayed many aspects o f the mind of Christ, nor o f similar men today in the uni form o f this and other lands. But a great general had said frankly that war is hell, and everything one reads today confirms his dictum. Military discipline is training for. war, arid it cannot but be morally haz ardous. For, again, the mind o f Christ stands for the superiority o f reason and love to brute might, and military discipline is based on the attempt to settle situations by the em ployment o f superior force. Every war is a confession of the failure o f conscience and intelligence. So war settles nothing. Our Civil War did not settle the negro question; it is open to debate whether it hastened or retarded its settlement. The settlement is coming from the Abolitionists and the many thinkers since who have been working to find a reasonable and Christian solution o f the race issue. There is noth ing more dangerous at the present moment in this country than to weaken men’s, faith x in the ability o f intelligence and conscience to- settle every question. Train them once to believe, as military training does, that force settles anything, and the principles of the I. W .’ W . are firmly established; let the stronger take possession; violence is justified, for might makes right. Compul sory iftilitary service in Europe has been the hotbed in which the methods o f the I. W . W . and Nihilists were fostered. Drill men to employ force, and they will employ it. Drill men to use conscience and their own thought—two things which military
advocates o f universal compulsory tailitary service. At the outset o f tl\e war there were earnest denunciations o f militarism: If Germany stands pre-eminently for the mili tary efficiency that comes from compulsory service, then without landing a battalion' Germany has already subjugated the minds o f the American; mind is tenfold more per ilous to the nation than any amount of hyphenated citizenship. Doubtless many things can be said for military discipline incidentally it supplies physical drill, takes men out o f cities into the country, and fur nishes a good deal of useful information; it inculcates loyalty; it brings home the duty of public service; it holds up the ideal o f sacrifice—willingness to lay down one’s life, if need be, for the country. But mili tary discipline is unchristian in that it teáches unquestioning obedience. Christianity demands that no man do any thing o f which his own conscientious judg ment is not persuaded. A soldier was once so impressed with the efficiency of the 1 armies of his day that he dedicated his life to supplying the Church with a similarly disciplined organization. Ignatius Loyola devised the Society o f Jesus, and no one questions its effectiveness for certain pur poses. But do we believe in thpse pur poses? Military discipline is fitted to turn out JesuitsJ not independent Protestant- Christians. Further, military discipline, however one may try to forget it, has just one end—to train effective butchers o f men ; it is training to kill, and everything in it is subordinate to its dominating purpose. Mili tary training that does not fit men to kill is po more the real thing than' Swimming in the nursery rhyme: Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter, Go hang your clothes on a hickory limb, But don’t go near the water. I f American boys and young men lack discipline, by all means let us supply it, but not through a training whose avowed aim is human slaughter. If they need to “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.”
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