SNAP SHOTS
Middleton, George
Snap Shots Books, Art, Drama By George Middleton MOST of the acute observers of modern de-mocracy have sadly come to the conclusion that its evils can only be cured by individual enlightenment....
...though the most extreme feel that nothing could be more humiliating and degrading than war...
...The difficulty is moral, and lies in the habits, passions, and wills of men...
...Certainly there has never been a time in which one should proceed so cautiously as now when this country is at the parting of the ways...
...G. LOWES DICKINSON'S The European Anarchy (Macmillan), though more pro-British, in spite of itself, is a very stimulating study along the same lines...
...In constructing machinery of this kind there is no intellectual difficulty greater than that which has confronted every attempt everywhere to substitute order for force...
...Space only permits me to mention one or two books which I earnestly urge upon my readers if they are not afraid of disturbing their prejudices with facts...
...They must reserve force only for the coercion of the law breaker and "that implies that they should construct rules to determine who the law-breaker is...
...And then the average person has so little time, in the midst of the mere business of making a living, to consider social questions...
...Yet when one considers carefully the many factors which have gone into the making of this terrible world-war, one asks the part which preparedness itself has played in that war and whether it has made for peace...
...But in each country voices have risen protesting against war, voices that do not carry the deep notes of nationalism but rather view all humanity as brothers...
...I have frequently called attention to this splendid novelist who writes his fiction under the pen name of Albert Edwards...
...This may be avoided if the nations submit to law in the settlement of their disputes...
...One thing is evi-dent to him that the victor must not deal harshly with the vanquished...
...In this connection it is interesting to note that armaments have risen as over-seas investments have increased...
...Like Mr...
...Yet one is disheartened when he realizes how difficult it is for even the searching soul to approximate truth...
...He feels that great ideals are at stake and yet he is not unmindful of what each nation has to contribute to the future...
...the papers are full of it and many people are honestly in favor of it through fear of the future...
...THESE three books give to the prejudiced some little feeling that "the wrong is mixed...
...The result is a volume, written with his usual charm, which is unbiased in its censure...
...FREDERIC C. HOWE'S book, "Why War...
...Is war so deeply ingrained in human nature that it must ever be a factor to reckon with, or will it be possible so to change the forces which have made for war, that one can curb them and thus insure the future peace of mankind...
...This war is essentially that problem no matter how those fighting in the trenches may feel...
...Once one looks at the war this way its inevita-blity is perhaps more tragic but it does open oneself to the hope that its causes, which lav in the nature of men, may be changed once those causes are clearly recognized...
...Wars today are not fought for the old causes: they are essentially concerned with spheres of influence, powerful economic interests backed by the foreign offices which have pledged themselves to protect, by force, the wide dissemination of surplus capital gone from home countries because of the larger profits in new lands...
...The great group of pacifists are, generally speaking, mainly agreed upon one thing: that whatever the occasion of the war, all the nations have been equally at fault in its causes...
...Junkerism in any country must be put down...
...BOOKS on this subject naturally over-lap...
...With the best of intentions we are so constituted that the daily iteration of facts—be they alleged or true—is bound to make an impression...
...The democratic nations are the more peaceful nations and in that lies the greatest hope for the future...
...Education alone can awaken each individual to his responsibility towards the group...
...Whatever one's personal convictions in the matter it would be well if all who are feeling deeply on this subject would pause long enough to read several books which have recently appeared...
...But the author does not feel that world arbitration can solve the difficulties, so long as the forces within the state are stronger than the state...
...He feels very strongly that the causes of war rest mainly in over-seas investments and the stimulation by ammunition makers, backed basically by the fact that it is the feudal classes, which are the financial classes, who have most desired war...
...The story is much the same as far as the diplomatic history of the past twenty-five years is concerned, save for individual bias or prejudice in the interpretation of the ascertainable facts...
...But the first step must lie in the education of the individual so that they can bring the impress of their vision upon the forces that govern and make for war or peace in international relations...
...Cries of preparedness, for example, are filling the air...
...One fact is clear, that if the great mass of the people could but be brought to realize how this present Avar came about much might be gained towards that permanent peace...
...No one can read this book without wondering whether this nation, too, must enter along the trail which made a tinder box of nations...
...Since the anarchy of Europe has caused the war, war must not he permitted to arise again...
...Scribners), while touching on much of the same historic ground and not entirely unlike it in conclusion, is much more concerned with the removal of the causes of war...
...Though not written with the same consistent charm, it bristles with facts that are arresting...
...Privilege must be made subservient to the best good of democracy...
...On the other hand, there is the irritating attitude of England toAvards the Bagdad railroad proposition in which Germany was so interested...
...As Mr...
...Bullard, he traces the effect of the colonial party in France upon the Morocco situation and points out how this became a source of irritation to Germany...
...THE ONLY THING that saves the world is the little handful of disinterested men that are in it.— President Wilson...
...This is a splendid, suggestive volume with which to ground oneself for other reading...
...He devotes much of his space to the new ideals which have grown up in Europe since the Congress of Berlin, showing how these have clashed...
...Are we to go on as in the past or must we put on the armor of military nations and front the world with force...
...But he is a radical who has contributed much on social questions...
...Howe illustrates in the Five Power loan in China our "dollar diplomacy" was a trend in that direction...
...In that way lies madness for the future peace of the world...
...ESPECIALLY valuable from the historical side is Arthur Bullard's The Diplomacy of the Great War (Macmillan...
...And it is to the facts of history that they point and hold all to account...
...The pacifists are not necessarily non-resistants...
...Immediately after the war he went to Paris and there devoted himself to a study of all the available documents with a view of picturing the succession of events which led to the war...
...His solution of the future may be signaled for record...
...Let him be defined as the one who appeals to force instead of appealing to law and right by machinery duly provided for that purpose, and the aggressor is immediately under the ban of the civilized world, and met by an overhelming force to coerce him into order...
Vol. 8 • May 1916 • No. 5
