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Show 'I SELF-DELUSIONS. Tl," j.i iil of .;i.'iIL.m it, that the pa.-i-li-t has not tin1 murage of his i-onvie-Lions. He jiivarln'H mi irepareil ness an.r tmn resist;! are, hut in a rrisis he heroines he-roines a belligerent. Then it is too late. The average mini is not belligerent, le long's for perpetual peaee, but he prepares for war. When war eonies he protects the pacifist from the consequences conse-quences of his folly. The pacifist litis not the courage of his convi'-tions because the time comes when he wants to fight. When his conn-try conn-try is invaile.l, his riches or his modest belongings plundered, his wife and daughters assailed and himself made a slave of the enemy, whether German or Jap, then he wants to light, lie may believe that he is a pence-at-any-price miin until that time arrives; then lie discovers that he is like the rest of men. When the sun of peace is shining, shin-ing, when the library has pleasant books for reading, when the rural ways are delightful for the spinning auto, the scholarly pacifist spouts gentle and loving trifles against militarism. He tells his empty-lieaded dupes .that an army and navy beget militarism, that militarism begets despotism, forgetting France and peaceful Switzerland. If the pacifist had the courage of his convictions he would meet the invader at the shore and surrender to him not only his home, but his wife and his daughters. Your pacifist loves to talk about scrapping the warships and disbanding dis-banding the army, but he wants a police force to protect him from tlni assassin and highwayman of his. own country, but no policemen to protect him from the assassin and the highwayman who swoops down upon him as a foreign invader. in-vader. In New York City they have a police force. It consists of an army and navy. There are police infantry and cavalry, so to speak, and there arc police patrol boats, some of them armed with machine ma-chine guns. Why does not the pacifist demand that KewYork City's army and navy be suppressed. Because the pacifist wants to traverse the streets safely at night, sleep without heed of burglars, and cross the Xorth and the East rivers without fear of thugs. He would raise his voice in lamentation, aye, and fury, if the police were disbanded because he would realize that violence and death wero ever at his side, threatening himself him-self and his loved ones. But the pacifist loves to address meetings meet-ings and- gild refined theories of non-resistance non-resistance while the police make life pleasant and safe for him. It is so. easy to purr in the soft voice of culture when no enemy threatens, and to delude de-lude our fellow man with twaddle and piffle. It is easy to indulge in the delicacies of diction, in the words that sooth and hypnotize. But it is hard to face the truth or to stand by the ultimate logic of one's phrase-mongering. The day may come when as Christians Chris-tians anil democrats we can disband our armies, but in that day we can also disband our police forces. The day may come when there will be no invaders, but in that day there will be neither murder nor lust, nor rapine. |