Scott Nearing

“ Whatever may have been true in the past, this war has shown as clearly as it has shown anything, that men and women of all nations are brave, selt-sacrificing, heroic. No great nation now at war can accuse any of its enemies of being either cowardly or weak. But, better than that, if the inside stories that come from the front mean anything, they mean that the men and women of the nations now at war did not want war, and now that they are at war, except in the heat of battle, they do not hate one another. ”

“ A thorough-going war spirit can be extracted from life only after years of steeping and simmering. Children are taught to hate. In their games they slaughter their foes—by name. Then school books teach them to hate, by distorting the facts of history, and by misrepresenting their enemies. Their military drill and patriotic appeals teach them to hate, by making them believe that their country is the greatest, strongest country on earth, and their enemies' country is the weakest and meanest. ”

“ One of the great militarists of Europe is reported to have said regarding the army, "It is just like a big machine. It gets rusty if you do not use it."
Satan gloats over idle hands. Swaggering officers and gossiping army and navy circles are a constant menace to the peace of any nation.
Military men reason thus within themselves, "Why have officers if there is to be no war?" And, by the same token, if there are officers, why not have war? Any man trained for a profession, and then held continually away from it, would reason in exactly the same way. ”

“ War is built out of the mud of human nature.
The passions of men are inflamed; they are told that their hearths and homes are in danger; they are persuaded that their existence and the existence of their country is at stake, and then they go to war, War is impossible until the nations have been roused to frenzy. ”

“ In all the belligerent countries men without distinction of party have drawn together to accomplish a successful prosecution of the war. Is it not a more difficult and a more desirable thing that all Americans should put partisan prepossessions aside and draw together for the successful prosecution of peace? I covet that distinction for America; and I believe that America is going to enjoy that distinction. ”

“ Militarism holds in her hand the sword of vested might that deals the death-blow to democracy. Liberty, equality and fraternity, therefore, are ill at ease in her presence.
The conflict between militarism and democracy is a conflict to the death. Neither can abide the presence of the other. If militarism is to stay, democracy must go. ”

“ They are merely the medium in which the germs develop.
The germs of war lie deeper in the competition for economic advantages that has plagued mankind for ages, and that still rides like a nightmare on the neck of the human race. ”

“ War suppresses the good and brings the bad to the surface. War is hell, and it develops man's most hellish instincts. The phrase, "There is no good Indian but a dead Indian" speaks the true war-spirit. Your enemies are bad because they are your enemies.
You probably know people from all of the nations at war, Russians, Germans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Austrians and Italians. They have their good qualities and their bad ones. In every army now in the trenches there are men who are good fathers, good neighbors, good workmen, good citizens. In every army there are roughs and hoodlums. ”

“ The man who urges the United States to prepare for war is false to all that is highest and finest in American life. Only he who desires to prepare for peace is a true American.
From the Navy League, The Defense League, the Associations of Women who are buying blankets and rolling bandages, and the military and naval authorities who are urging "preparedness," there comes a storm of indignant protest, "We are the champions of the nation's honor! ”

“ England and Germany are at war! Yet there is nothing in them past to explain the conflict. England has fought battles with all of her principal Allies. It is little more than fifty years since she waged a bitter war against Russia. England and France are hereditary enemies. England helped to sweep Spain from her position as mistress of the world. So much for England's allies. Now as to her enemies. There has never been a war between England and Germany. Always the two nations have been friends. ”

“ The Economics of War.
Economic conflict has appeared in many forms. In the early dawn of history men were fighting for the fertile valleys of the world,—the Ganges, the Nile, the Tigris. Race after race swept down on these garden spots and drove out or enslaved those who held them. For ages, history was a record of the campaigns waged by vigorous hill-tribes against the more cultured, richer, and less vigorous valley tribes. ”

“ Differences in race, nationality, language and religion do not make wars in the Twentieth Century. They help, but they are not at the bottom of the trouble. The germs of war are not here.
There are political causes of war.
The army and navy is a branch of the political government, and the army and navy wants war.
Men get tired of uselessness. "Here we are these many years," they complain, "doing nothing. We have been educated and equipped for war. We are tired of just showing off; we want the real thing." ”

“ Before human nature can be sufficiently embittered and terrified to produce war between great nations, someone must do a great deal of missionary work. The people must be prepared for war. They must be appealed to, stirred up, exasperated, enraged, infuriated. ”

“ Their churches teach them to hate by telling them that God is on their side, while their enemies are in league with the devil.
Thus steeped and schooled in hate, enthusiastic, patriotic and ignorant, they go out to wage war against oppression in the name of liberty. ”

“ Still, the army is a relatively small factor in American life. There are less than twenty thousand military and naval officers in the United States. Their business is war, but they are the merest handful as compared with the whole country. If there were two or three hundred thousand officers in the United States they might constitute a serious menace to the peace of the country, as they do in those European countries that have a great militarist caste.
Secret diplomacy is a fruitful cause of misunderstanding among nations. ”

“ The honest, fearless seeker after truth first asks the questions of science, and then labors until she finds the answers.
There are many fields in which the three questions of science have been asked and successfully answered. The people of Havana for centuries had been plagued with yellow fever. Year after year the terrible disease returned to the city, to overwhelm the people and to take their children and their loved ones. Some said, "It is a punishment for sin," Others, "It is the will of God." The American men of science came, asked their questions, and set about discovering the answer. ”

“ If one-half of the people in the United States were hanged in the next year, there would still be crime. No amount of punishment of individuals will have any effect on a thing for which the individual is not responsible. It is as easy to stop the flow of a river with a dam as to stop crime with a jail. ”

“ If the preparedness agitation looks toward peace, it must meet with the approval of the people of the United States, because as a people they are for peace. Their ideals are peaceful; their traditions are not warlike. ”

“ The United States is opposed to war. She is preparing in order that she may play her part in maintaining peace. By what means may war be prevented and peace established? Or, put the question more generally, and ask, "How do you avert an impending danger?" ”

“ The United States is now in the midst of a campaign of misrepresentation, the like of which has never before been undertaken in the history of the country. For years, the American reading public has been treated to a flood of systematic lying about Mexico. ”

“ By way of further emphasis, the President added, "The people of the United States should know the sinister and unscrupulous influences that are afoot, and should be on their guard against crediting any story coming from the border, and those who disseminate the news should make it a matter of patriotism and of conscience to test the source and authenticity of every report they receive from that quarter." ”

“ There are social differences and differences in ideals. Yes, and there are differences in race, in language, and in religion. But here are no necessary causes of war. They are handy tools to use after war has been declared. They are handy instruments for the development of hatred and fear. ”

“ Subject human nature to one line of treatment, and you develop bitterness, fear, hatred, war. Give it the opposite line of treatment, and you develop good feeling, friendship and peace.
Human nature cannot be blamed for war. One part of it is used in making war just as one part of corn is used in making whiskey. ”

“ The press of a great country solid on one side of an issue of the most momentous consequence to the future of the country, and frankly refusing to print even the news on the other side. Why are some people anxious to bring on Mexican Intervention? Why is the American Press for preparedness and pro-Ally? ”

“ We are patriots, worthy of the greatest traditions of a great country. Our program is a program of defense. America must be protected against foreign foes, while she works out her ideals and her destiny. ”

“ Your city is threatened with typhoid fever. Do you import doctors, hire nurses, and rush through appropriations for new hospitals? or do you boil the water and inspect the milk?
You are an intelligent human being, living in a scientific age. ”

“ The up-to-date social scientist has begun to treat crime scientifically. In answer to the question, "Why?" the criminologist has discovered that there are two chief causes of crime. First and most important there are the frightful economic and social conditions under which millions of children are pushed toward the brink of the criminal precipice. Second, there are the mental and physical defects that unbalance the individual who is suffering from them. Practically all of the crime from which society suffers can be traced to one of these two causes. ”

“ Daylight diplomacy would eliminate much bad feeling between the nations.
There are politicians who would make war to get votes. Such men are undoubtedly in a hopeless minority, yet the type exists, and in a grave crisis it must be reckoned with. ”

“ It failed to reform the criminal, and it failed to prevent crime. It failed because it was unintelligent. It had taken no notice of causes.
Many people are today talking of war, and its prevention. The same questions that are asked in any other scientific inquiry must be asked here. There is no use in trying to prevent war, until we understand the causes of war. It will be time enough to think of preventing war when we have isolated the germs of war and studied them.
What are the germs of war? Where do they breed? On what do they thrive? ”

“ Then came the wars over trade-routes, and the struggle for the control of seagoing commerce. And now, under the dominion of an industrial system that is founded on the machine, the factory, the railroad, the bank and the retail store comes the international competition for foreign markets. ”

“ They talk back and forth, as man with man. If they were not at war they would work side by side in the same shops; eat side by side in the same restaurants, and sleep side by side in the same rooms.
Human nature has many sides. ”

“ A method was found, and since the American occupation of Havana, yellow fever, that had, up to that time, been an annual visitor, has become a stranger to the city. Yellow fever, like every other disease which afflicts civilization, will be destroyed when we find the germs and destroy them. ”