THE HOUSE IS HAUNTED

Professor McLaughlin of the Harvard Law School has taken the Crimson severely to task for its stand against prominent men who have publicly supported the Allies. Based on the assumption that the present war is a holy crusade of angels against devils, he has charged that the editors of this newspaper have "hysterical inhibitions against the thought of war." He goes on to characterize all who stand for American neutrality as fatuous, emotional, and cowardly, and supporters of the Allies as the only true, hard-headed logicians. On the contrary, the Crimson pleads for an unemotional, clear-headed survey of the present situation, confident that its stand will prove the more logical.

An impartial observer must first look behind the catchwords of war propagandists. In the World War these men, reaching the peak of their inventiveness, hit upon the phrase, "war to end war." Judging by the quality of the slogans, the present conflict cannot yet equal the holiness of the last one. But still, the parallel between now and the days of 1914-1917 is close. Then too, leaders of church and university such as President Eliot of Harvard and Bishop Manning, boldly backed Britain and France. America thought after the war that this would never happen again, but the familiar utterances have returned within the last month to haunt and harass the spirit of a nation determined to stay out of war.

Certainly a member of the Harvard teaching staff should know that experience is the greatest teacher. But it is evident that Professor McLaughlin learned little from that most bitter lesson, the World War. Indeed, he rushes blindly into the most high-flown assumptions, such as the belief that truth travels with the British navy. Before making such indiscreet statements, he might well study the historical background of this nation, and re-examine the problems of today in its light. He would then find that the propagandists of the last war wrote better than they knew, that the only war this country will ever fight is one which it believes will end war. This, it is not likely to believe again.