Suppose the Congress of the United States and the Diet of Japan should declare war against each other. Why not have all the fighting and the bleeding and the dying done by the Mikado and the national legislature of Japan and our President and our national legislature? Simply have these two small groups of glistening strutters forced to face each other with rifles, swords and Gatling guns out on some nice level county fair-ground or big cornfield—forced to furnish the blood, cripples, corpses and funerals. This plan would be far more fun and less worry and less work—for the working class; it would require so much less time and money and blood and tears. Take the last great war between Germany and France, in 1870–71. The King of Prussia and the Emperor of France had a personal quarrel about who should be or who should not be the new King of Spain—which was none of their business. They got “real mad.” War was declared. The “honor” of this precious pair of handsome parasites was at stake. Nothing but blood would wash out the stain upon their “honor.” Of course, royal blood was too precious for this laundering process. “Noble blood” was, of course, not available—for such purposes. The blood of common working class men would do very well for these two brutes to do their washing in. They were too cowardly to take each a sword and a Winchester and go out behind the barn or into the woodshed and “settle it,” risking their own putrid blood.... No—oh, no! The red ooze of kings and nobles is not to be wasted as long as a lot of cheap wage-slaves are standing around willing to be butchered—with pride,—for the experience and honor of it. “To the front! To the front! A million men to the front!” Instantly a multitude of the strong men of the working class blindly rushed to the front—as ordered, and _asking no more questions_ about the _justice_ of the war than the cavalry horses asked.[184] Did the working people of France and Germany have any grudge against one another? Not the slightest. But they butchered one another by the tens of thousands. It is true that the King of Prussia and the Emperor of France were actually in this war, “at the front” (somewhat—or “as it were”). But the working class reader should not be deceived by that fact. The King and the Emperor were rarely in any danger whatever—up _very_ close. They “_enjoyed_” the battles from the high ground overlooking the slaughter—watching bravely through telescopes. “How, then, did the Germans capture the Emperor at the Battle of Sedan?”