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Don't get mixed up. Think straight. And you must see:

1. That it is nonsense to talk of disarming or even lessening the burden of military preparedness until you can kill that theory that each nation shall execute justice for itself.

2. That there can never be disarmament except by DELEGATING the settling of disputes to some central body.

3. AND THAT THE OPPOSITE OF WAR IS NOT PEACE, BUT FEDERATION.

In a civilized city individuals are not allowed to fight out their differences, nor even to carry pistols or bowie-knives wherewith to be ready to fight.

It is the very essence, juice and gist of civilization that individuals bring their quarrels into a court.

This does not deny the right to quarrel. You and I may fight all we please. The only point is that we may not fight like street urchins, Indians, or savages, but must take our question into a tribunal.

What is true of individuals is true of nations. Where two nations go to war there is rank mediævalism or savagery.

The only possible remedy is for the nations

to federate, to get together and agree that all quarrels shall be settled in court and by law.

This carries with it a corollary, that NO NATION SHALL BE ALLOWED TO MAINTAIN AN ARMY AND NAVY SO THAT IT SHALL BE READY FOR WAR.

And that the only armed force on earth shall be under the direction of the central court.

And it is

This is just plain horse sense. the only conceivable way to avoid future wars. The opposite to war, therefore, is not peace. It is federation. War is barbaric craziness; federation is civilized intelligence.

Only by federation is the whole world pledged to the independence and prosperity of each of the states thereof.

Peace is millennial, Utopian. FEDERATION IS PRACTICAL; IT CAN BE PUT INTO EFFECT RIGHT NOW.

Peace may be dishonorable. Federation is honorable to the highest degree.

Federation mixes no confusing issues into the main question. In federation each nation may do as it pleases in its own territory. It can have a monarchy or a republic. It can enjoy rebellions, strikes, and uprisings.

Only it cannot attack another nation. That the world will attend to.

Just as the Jones family may fight all they wish with one another in their own yard, but the state prohibits them from going over and beating up the Smiths.

Every treaty of peace is "a scrap of paper" so long as there is no federation, so long as each state maintains armies and forts.

There is no truth so important as this in the whole realm of God's truth.

Thursday, September 3, 1914.

THE MOTHER

THE war lord emperor sat in his tent surrounded by his generals. Reports were coming in every few moments from the gigantic battle, where three million men were wrestling along a two-hundred mile line.

The air was charged with the voltage of great events. The emperor's brow was dark. He was nervous. His words were sharp and rasping. He would sit for tense intervals in silence.

Suddenly he said, "What is that noise? Go and see."

An aid saluted, disappeared, returned in a little while and announced, "It is a woman, your majesty. For some reason the guards will not touch her. She demands to see you." "Bring her here."

The woman was led in. She was of peasant type, not uncomely. Her clothes were tattered, her hair dishevelled, her eyes were of fire and fever.

"Who are you?" said the emperor brusquely.

"I am a mother."

"What are you doing here?" "I seek my boy."

"What do you mean? Go on; tell your story. Be brief."

"I am a mother," said the woman, standing erect and looking fearlessly in his eye. "They took away my boy, my Karl. I want him. That is all."

After a moment she continued: "I live in the country, by Pasing, in Bavaria. My man died just after Karl was born. I kept my child, worked for him, brought him up to be a man. Then they came and took him to the

war.

"When he was gone, I could not stand it. I sat for days with my head in my hands-so. My heart broke. My brain was burning.

"So I said, 'I will go to the kaiser and ask him for my boy. He has so many-millions of them, like the stars-he can spare one. He is all I have. I will go. They can but shoot me. Better dead than as I am.'

"I had no money. I walked all the way. I went through towns; all gave me food because I am a mother. Farmers gave me rides on their carts when they knew I was a mother.

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