The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (May 1913): Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913Various
History
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (May 1913): Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
Various
Periodicals
It is well for peace-lovers now and then to put the case thus
strongly, in order that they may face the difficulty at its darkest.
The fact that the evil they struggle against is persistent is but one
argument more for their own persistence. Pacifists must be as ready
and resourceful as the militarists. If ever it is right to learn
from an enemy, it surely is in this instance. Something has been
gained in this way. The late William James, for example, contended
that we must admit that there are some good, human weapons in the
hands of the war party, and that the peace men must study, not only
how to appreciate them, but how to use them. Professor James would
have sought in peaceful pursuits the equivalents of the appeal which
war makes to certain manly qualities. Heroism in private life, in
scientific pursuits, in exploration, in reform--this is what he urged.
The patriotic impulse transmuted into great engineering works, vast
plans for sanitation, campaigns against disease and misery--that is
what peace can offer to ardent youth. All this is sound, and good as
far as it goes; but the question arises to-day whether there is not
need of something more positive and aggressive, whether the spirit of
militarism cannot be turned against itself; whether, in a word, there
should not be war against war.
The conduct of a military campaign calls for an enormous amount of
preparation and organization. Let the advocates of peace take this
to heart. They cannot win simply by wishing to win. It is for them,
too, to be far-sighted, to lay careful plans, to enlist every modern
method of working in unison to a definite end. War mobilizes men. Peace
must muster ideas, sentiments, influences. In the _Kriegspiel_ the
strategist seeks to mass his troops upon the enemy’s weakest point. The
tactics of peace should be similar. Argument and persuasion and appeal
should be made to converge upon the exposed flank of the militarists.
This may be found, at one moment, in the pressure of taxation, which
needlessly swollen armaments would make unbearable. At another time,
it may appear that the thing to hammer upon is the pressing need of
social reforms, even attention to which will be endangered if all the
available money and time are squandered upon preparing for a war that
may never come. Let peace, too, acquire a General Staff, whose duty
it shall be to survey the whole field, to work out fruitful campaigns,
to tell us where to strike and how, to lay down the principles of the
grand strategy to be followed.
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