Show Future of World Hangs on 00 Attitude of the Fighters d By Dy Philip Gibbs Every month since November 11 II 1918 when the armistice was signed after the enemy's abject surrender large bodies of men have been teen given their release from military service and have left the zone of the armies to be e reabsorbed into civil life Th The whole future of th the world depends depend depends depends' upon the thoughts words and actions of these men and the philosophy with which the they regard the life ahead o of the them n. n Because although the they have taken off their khaki and have been made free of discipline and in their civil clothes have the appearance o of prewar citizens they are men of a different mentality from those who have never been close to war and j who who wIH e e souls souls have not been scorched b by th tub fires of war They can put their old tunics into the dust bins but they cannot put away way away from themselves the memories of the tragedy they have have seen nor of the sufferings through which they passed They are changed men men s they are otherwise than as th they y went out to war with simple boyish ideals of courage and adventure they look at life now with the brooding eyes ees of men who have no illusions having stared at at close range into the hell which humanity makes of life by I hatred haired Simple souls who still look I at war star ar through a haze of romantic romantic- romanticism 1 is ism n and think only of the valor of our our youth without remembering the I Inevitable ble brutalities of modern warfare war war- war war-I 1 fare have an idea that all our fighting fighting fighting fight- fight ing ing men have been refined by those furnace fires and have come back backwith backwith backwith with beautiful ideals noble sentiments sentiments sentiments senti senti- ments and splendid satisfaction with victory like knights after a crusade for Christian rights Many Come Back With AVIth Sullen Spirit The truth is as far as I can see it that many of our men are coming back with a bitter and sullen spirit I Ia a rankling sense of injustice and hatred against the powers l whoever they may be and be-and and they do not know I who permitted this Thing this Horror Horror Hor Hor- I Hor-I I to happen In the world Many I of them are coming back if I know anything about them with violent passions which the they are prepared to use violently i if thwarted in in their desires or if crossed in temper That state of mind seems to me to tobe tobe be inevitable Look at the m life those men led in the trenches trenches especially especially the British soldiers who had so long longa a time there All their training and andall andall andall all their discipline was to one end end end- the killing of men That was the first mental and emotional shock that i f came to them because these boys of f fours ours belonged to a phase of civilization i I tion in which the killing of men seemed seemed seem seem- ed cd to have been eliminated 4 r t Military Conflicts With Civil Training They had been taught all through their boyhood up to the point of war S that bloodshed was to be avoided at atall atall all cost and that the civil law was wasa a remedy for all quarrels however passionate and that the code of life I was gentle courteous and kind Now suddenly all that was reversed by the I necessity of killing Germany by iny any means in large numbers at every 1 t hour of the day and night Their bayonet drill was devised scientifically ly to inflame their blood lust I 1 have seen boys so influenced that thai after 1 I they had stabbed the sandbags ferociously ferociously fero- fero they kicked them as though I S were the bodies of their enemy Officers told them impressively that after they had once been really that blooded blooded that Is to say when they I lid lAd d really killed their man the man the I Ii i would uld like it and want to go on kil- kil kil-I kil ing I I Wheres Arry asked a cockney sergeant whose platoon was bayoneting bayonet bayonet- ing lug Germans in a trench fight Arry I was a tender-hearted tender fellow rather a r a softy and the sergeant called for tor him to do a little bit of killing kUling so that he should be bo properly hardened and the et the blood lust It was part of the training So every day day dayboys boys who had come out of nurseries and academies ac demies for young gentlemen and elementary schools regulated by bya a gentle code were taught h how w to kill kil f- f r the enemy by patient watching for tor forI I S any head to show above a l parapet by byi i 1 machine-gunning machine a group of men visible vis vis- r ible ible through a periscope by bombing r h i him or knifing him in the darkness t i o of No Mans Man's land by strangling him himi himin I f i in underground tunnels by blowing r J him up at the touch touch- of mine charge J J by soaking his dugouts with poison e Iff r- r I gas gus and by smashing him to death I with gunfire precisely as he tried todo to todo do to us i J Youth Finds strange Pleasure In f jf Cruelty i Our young lads learned these lest les- les t f eons sons quickly though to many of them themi yr i c r t it was all unnatural and abhorrent f and it made a difference to their view viewS S of life me Some of at them lapsed easily I into the new order of things which was also the old order of mankind in J. J the days of the stone stone age age and the apelike apelike ape ape- I like We man All that civilization meant mean was Iwas wiped clean out of their souls soul land and they harked back to the natural natura state of primitive man mau and found foun I themselves at home liking ItI it I There was an English lawyer 1 In Flanders in 1915 whose pleasure t was to creep out at night Into N No NoMans NoMan's Mans Man's Land close to the German line Une and pretending to be a dead body wait for an any enem enemy to show himself Sometimes a man would crawl out t to drag In a dead comrade and then th the English lawyer lawyer lawyer-a a highly Intellectual and educated gentleman would gentleman would rals raise himself an inch or two with hi his o and lay layout out the living man beside beside beside be be- side the the dead one one Sometimes a small party of Germans would creep out a little way to mend their wire and had the lawyer would get two o othree or ort t three ree shots and every shot meant a a. dead man man whose number he nicked off by a notch in The ilie end butt-end of his rifle By Dy day this officer was silent moody restless ss He He lived for the nights bights when he could hunt alone He was back in the primitive age of life tHe three i-three three thousand years ears back from 1915 Australians CI Choose Short Steel Blade f There were o other her men like him with a real pleasure in the killing side of the business How did you get on today I asked a soldier from I during a big bat bat- ale tle It was a disappointment he said said quite simple with a northern burr in his speech The Germans ran so far I couldn't get in with the bayonet work There were Australian battalions who vho had a special force of trench raiders trained by an old lion-hearted lion colonel like a sixteenth century soldier sol aol dier of fortune with steel-blue steel eyes under shaggy brows and a ferocious growl which dissolved into a curious- curious y sweet smile after he had gripped ones one's t hand as in an iron vise Come and eat with my young f he said and I sat down in inthe I. I he the officers' officers mess of the raiding batI bat bat- n. n All the men there had volI volunteered volunteered vol vol- I un tee red for this raiding job the job the most dangerous game of all with almost certain death ahead after lucky escape this time or next They told me their method of attack their way of killing in a hurry Most of them preferred a short steel blade like a dagger for dealing with the sentinels and any men walking In Inthe Inthe the trenches though others liked a short weighted iron-weighted club For slaughter of a wholesale kind there was nothing Jike ike a Stokes shell with witha fa Va quick fuse flung down a dugout in which Germans were hiding These raiders were simple grim humorous young men l I feed em raw meat said their old colonel with a wink It makes them more savage That of or course was his Jest They were not In need raw of-raw raw f-raw meat to inflame the quiet pleasure they had In killing their enemy i Prin Primitive Passions Incite Fighters The Scots the north country English English English Eng Eng- lish and the Canadians were not averse to the business of slaughter and sand in the heart of battle they saw red Ired as most men do partly from fromI I fear which is an element of all fe ferocity ferocity ferocity fe- fe rocity fighting in-fighting the In the fear of certain death If the enemy is not destroyed and and partly from primitive passions I which surge up in h the human heart with a revival of the caveman Instinct Instinct instinct In In- face to face with the hostile tribe The Londoners and south country English and many of the themen themen themen men from cities like Uke Liverpool Manchester Manchester Manchester Man Man- chester Birmingham and so on had hadIan Ian m Instinctive revolt against bayonet fighting and bombing at close range they they were slow when the enemy Surrendered and did not work for death death and and having been bred in towns with their civilizing and per- per Imps enervating influences hated all ll the fine conditions of war more poignantly with more spirited distress than lads from rural districts For that thai reason their courage as soldiers and and no bodies of men were more gallant than the L London divisions divisions- ns- ns was most to be admired They Cannot Bo Be e tho the Same Now men who have gone through experiences lik like that who have not only been trained to kill but have known that their own life Ufe was of no nomore nomore nomore more account than a grain of sand Who have been so familiar r with the sight of death that it has no effect upon upon their conditions are not likely to come back to civil life as they went away from It They have been hardened hardened hardened hard hard- ened and to some extent brutalized or Or if they have been sensitive enough and Intelligent enough to avoid a brutalizing process they have come comeback back some back some of them with them with a pas- pas sense of revolt against the things they had to do as soldiers tho the discipline that was exacted of them so that they had no individual liber lIber- t ty of conscience desire or action and against the social philosophy of the modern world which took such things for Jor granted and applauded those thing thingS by the name of glory All AH soldiers or at least millions of soldiers remember some private personal personal per per- grievance which embittered them the constant brutality of some non commissioned officer or the lack of promotion or decoration for so some e service It service It was often another fellow tellow who got the tho reward reward reward-or or worse still some blundering order or careless leadership which led to the sacrifice of a company or battalion Soldiers Filled With AVIth Resentment They are resentful of the losses suffered by their comrades and justly justly justly just just- ly or unjustly unjustly unjustly-in y-in y in many cases unjustly un un- un- un justly they justly they accuse their superior officers officers officers of of- or the high comma command d of ruthless ruthless ruthless ruth ruth- less disregard of human life Ufe They are resentful also more bitterly of the people at home who did not suffer suffer suffer suf suf- fer the things they suffered and who ho grew rich or kept their wealth and their domestic happiness and their little comforts and luxuries while the fighting men were lying in wet ditches ditch ditch- es and being shelled to to pieces Men Ien who came back to England on seven days days' leave from France and Flanders strolled up Piccadilly and saw a tide of m motor tor cars ars driving by with well dressed people laughing and chatting inside them and looked uJ ugh the swinging doors of big hotels and saw pretty women In evening evening evening even even- ing dress flirting with men in boiled boiled boiled boil ed shirts and saw queues outside the theaters and music halls and said England doesn't care a damn for us We may die to the last man and they hey will still amuse themselves Weare Weare We Wo are being sacrificed lor tor the selfishness of those rich idle swine If we get our oar legs blown off orr they will dole us out a few pounds and then forget us and hate hale to see our maimed bodies about the street Galet Gaiety nt at Home Homo Breeds Breads re ds Displeasure I have heard men say say those things and they were not pleasant sant to hear In n the main they were utterly untrue because the women were I agonizing for their sons ons or their lovers lowera lov- lov ers era rs and the gaiety of London and other ther big cities clUes was WaR but a mask of courage put on for the sake of the themen themen themen men on leave hiding hearts full of fear ear and despair because of the masacre massacre massacre mas- mas sacre acre of youth which teemed seemed I Ing ng At least that was the mentally mentality ty y of the great majority of the nation apart part from vicious men and women who vho in England as in every country have lave diseased hearts and poisoned brains rains and will rush about for selfish pleasure leasure though the world Is plague- plague Stricken But Dut the soldiers from France and Flanders home for a few days before gOing back to their shell-harassed shell fields elds saw only the superficial carelessness carelessness care- care of their nation and cursed It t In blasphemous speech and still re re- re member Out there in the trenches the they hey heard of the big wages being paid mid to war workers the workers the dock laborers shipbuilders engineers miners liners workers and all factory factory fac- fac tory ory hands male and female and read ead of strike after strike for higher high high- er r wa wages rs which were invariably t I by hy a frightened government They compared the wages of men safe afe from shell fire snug at home living with their women folk going to o the pictures in the evening with their own pay as private soldiers soldiers soliers sol- sol diers and their own lives in foul conditions conditions con- con without liberty and in constant constant contant con- con stant tant peril of at being killed or mangled That's nice justice they said Well We'll see about that th if we get home ome They stored these things up in n their minds and they bred a secret venom Their Discipline Was Vas Wonderful The They were amenable to discipline In n a wonderful wa way because they saw with natural common f sense ense that without with with- out but ut discipline an army is a rabble and nd because if they did not obey the price rice of disobedience was dreadful But ut military discipline is Is not natural to o men It is utterly unnatural and against the Instinct of liberty which Is s In ever every heart So that when once they hey are demobilized demobilized ed d as they call it with ironical they humor they convey all the discipline line ne to the devil and indulge in a natural and complete reaction Truly Truy Tru- Tru ly y for a time at least they find themselves demoralized The Tho steel of nerve control central by which they hey kept up their courage and conduct conduct con- con duct In the army snaps within them and nd they they- flop Into a queer kind of or lassitude They are atria nua loose end In n the army everything was done for tor them hem in return for their service They hey had their food tood sent up from the tho base ase with the regularity of clock- clock ork wort They had their billet assign assign- bd d to them Every hour of their day dayas was as ordered 1 Even their amusements and nd their sports were |