TERRIBLE PEACE

War is a terrible game for nations to play, as our pacifists have shown in many words. And while we were at peace we recognized how terrible war is. We read the dispatches from Europe telling of Belgium being tortured to extinction, and France agonizing for her very life, shuddered, remarked "War is an awful thing," and turned to the financial page, content with our three full meals a day, and our security form lawless nations. We have been told that great wealth is consumed in war, and that brave men die. Which is all very true.

Now that we are entered into the war, and we are preparing armies to carry our flags beside the flags of other great nations, the aspect of war should seem far more terrible to us, if our fears have been justified. Yet do wise men who are not poltroons say today that we have lost anything or will lose anything that makes national existence worth continuance? Our wealth is being amassed to be expended in war. Each one of us will endure a curtailment of our resources. Our young men are soon to be trained for war. A great many of them will never come back. If anything is fearful in prospect, that should be fearful.

But those who stand face to face with the fact of war see with a clearer vision, and know that the fore boding of those who have declared war is so ghastly are the words of cravens. We see men who have been striving after the futile things of life suddenly become magnificent in their vision. We see selfish men grown generous and careless men stirred to passion by the deep love of country. We see the awakening of a dormant people, and know how terrible are many of the ways of peace.

It is not tragic that brave men die. It is tragic that men are afraid to die. All men die, but not all men are brave. We have escaped from one of the terrors of peace.