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Show QUITE A SHOCK. Life sentences for forty-five conscientious conscien-tious objectors in Toxas niust have shocked tho prisoners almost as much as if they had been sentenced to death. Nor could they havo felt much relieved when their sentences were commuted to twenty-live years. Usually tho conscientious objectors havo been willing to wear tho United States uniform and' engage in non-combatant service, but, presumably, the intractable in-tractable or rigorously conscientious forty-five would riot serve their country in any military way. No man who works at all can holp taking part iu the war. In other wars, tho civilian, if ho thought on the subject sub-ject at all, ilid not suspect that he was participating in tho war simply because he tilled the fields or toiled in a blacksmith black-smith shop. But today, when whole nations, na-tions, not merely armies, wage war, every toiler, no matter what he does, is assisting iu the war. The only way in which a consistent conscientious objector ob-jector could help serving his country would be to adopt the attitude1 of the Hindoo my sties,, and . spend, his life. in. contemplation. Had the forty -five- been dismissed from the army, and returned to civilian life, they would have taken up various lines of work. One would have become a farm hand, another would have-entered a railroad repair shop, and another, an-other, perhaps,, might havo become a riveter in a shipbuilding plant. It probably prob-ably would not have occurred to the riveter that he was as much responsible for bloodshed as the man with the rifle or tho maehino gun, but such is the nature na-ture of this war that a man, because he works, is a soldier. He may take no soldierly risks, but indirectly he assists in slaying his fellow men. At Lincoln, Neb., the attorney for the state council of defense asked one of the paeifistie professors whether, if assailed as-sailed by a highwayman, he would permit per-mit himself to bo shot rather than take the life of his assailant. Ho thought he wouTd. Had tho professor carried his feeble ratiocinations to a logical conclusion, conclu-sion, he would have said that all the police forces should be disbanded, for he could not consistently advocate any resistance to the highwayman that would cause his death. If it is wrong for a professor, it is wrong for a policeman police-man to kill. But, if we abolish our poliee forces, bandits and thugs will abolish some of our professors. And there are some professors who are just as valuable to the nation as highwaymen, highway-men, oir. As a matter of fact, our police forces are standing armies, and society is at war all the time. But, until Germany forced us iuto the war, no one heard a conscientious objector advocating a free field for highwaymen, burglars or murderers. It seemed pretty well agreed by everybody that policemen should kill upon occasions. And yet the conscientious conscien-tious objector who paid his taies helped the policeman to do the killing. Did anyone know of a conscientious objector who refused to pay his taxes on that account ac-count ? Civilization could not exist a week, without officers of the law or virilance committees to replace them. There is no such thing as an absolute state of peace. Criminals are waginj wur all the time, and society, in self-defense, imprisons im-prisons or slavs them. |