The Military Service Council

“ There is no better evidence of the purity of British motives and the disinterestedness of British action than the complete unity of the Empire in the desperate struggle in which it is now engaged. If there could be better evidence it lies in the fact that the United States, removed for a century from the quarrels of Europe, has entered the conflict, in sheer revolt against Teutonic aggression and driven by a noble impatience with actions that have destroyed the reign of law among nations and put earth and heaven to shame. ”

“ Enough has been said to reveal an emergency in which nothing less fundamental is at stake than the existence of Canada as a free country. If Germany should triumph we would not have a choice between Independence and British Connection. We would pass under German sovereignty. There would be no protection under the Monroe Doctrine. If Germany should not be conquered the United States, in arms against the Germanic alliance, would be involved in the common defeat of the Allies. Washington would be as powerless as London or Ottawa to determine the future political status of the Canadian people. ”

“ Who suggests that in time of peace we can sing God save the King, boast of our British citizenship and send our trade on the seas under protection of the British navy, and do nothing in time of war? There could, however, be no greater mistake than to think that we are in the war at the command of Great Britain or purely to sustain British interests. We are in the war primarily to defend and maintain freedom and self-government in Canada. ”

“ Jean Jaures, an extreme Socialist and idealist, argues that the rooted objection to national service which has been so common in democratic countries finds its support in the spirit of caste and the vested interests of a class who cling to the idea of commanding a great army, segregated from the nation in a world of its own, with its own laws, its own pomp and circumstance, rather than of accepting their position as the leading citizens in an armed nation. ”

“ A democracy chooses its rulers; an autocracy commands its subjects. In France and Germany we have the conflicting ideals of an autocracy organized for attack and a democracy organized for defence. A looser military organization in France would have ensured the success of the attack. Failure to arm the nation would have been equivalent to self-destruction. Where the power to command, without assent of the people, exists, democracy has not come to birth. Where democracy rejects the supreme obligation of citizenship it is not full born. ”

“ It will be said that the honor they won for us among the nations we meanly cast away and that we were unworthy of their chivalry, courage and sacrifice. We cannot escape comparison with Britain and Australia and New Zealand. If we deny obligation to the Empire or responsibility for the war we are still subject to judgment. At least we have a political connection with the Old World which the United States has not, and, therefore, cannot withdraw from a conflict into which our neighbors have entered through high concern for the decencies of civilization and the elementary rights of mankind. ”

“ While time lasts the betrayal of Belgium will have shameful pre-eminence in what John Morley calls “The sombre tragedy of human history.” Nor would Great Britain have escaped lasting dishonor if she had failed in fidelity to France and Belgium at any cost of life and treasure. It is not necessary to argue that the violation of Belgian neutrality alone explains the British declaration of war upon Germany. That cause was adequate, if there were no other, but there were other considerations of direct and tremendous consequence to the British Empire. ”

“ Thus we have not only the British people, so seldom united in war, animated by a common purpose, but also the American Republic, nurtured in love of peace and distrustful of the old world’s ideals and ambitions, inspired and united by a common sense of danger and a common concern for freedom and civilization. ”

“ In Canada as in Great Britain we enrolled a great army under the voluntary system. If it had been said a few years ago that the Dominion could secure 400,000 men for a war in Europe the statement would have been treated with derision. But the fact that voluntary enlistment has been so satisfactory is an argument for, not against, a compulsory draft. The need for selection is more imperative. Such great sacrifices demand our last effort to ensure that they shall not be in vain. The magnitude of the enlistment emphasizes the danger and the vital interest of Canada in the issue. ”

“ With a land army unequalled in Europe the Kaiser set himself to rival the British navy and the British merchant marine. A great navy was not required to ensure the political security or protect the commerce of Germany. Only by naval power could the British Empire exist. When we think of the achievements of the Germanic alliance against a world in arms we realize what a mortal hazard the British Empire would have faced in single combat against enemies enriched by the spoils of victory over France, Russia and Belgium, and with all the smaller nations of Europe reduced to submissive neutrality. ”

“ Under National Service Republican France has had freedom from internal convulsions and Chauvinistic military adventures. In defence the French people have made sacrifices of blood and treasure beyond computation. But for nearly half a century, notwithstanding the brutal arrogance and avarice of Prussia in 1870, they kept the peace themselves and were among the active forces for peace in the councils of Europe. In Germany national service is not the “Will of the people,” but the instrument of rulers lusting for dominion and intolerant of the privileges and ideals of democracy. ”

“ By voluntary enlistment 430,000 men were secured and 332,000 of these have crossed the sea. In all the long span of human history there is nothing more romantic and majestic than this great gift of manhood from the new world to restore freedom in the old. Even when the bells ring for peace many of those who left Canada in the pride of youth and strength will not come back. The loss is grievous even though they were where they should have been when they fell. The casualties in the Canadian army exceed 100,000 and 30,000 sleep in France and Flanders. ”

“ He insists that “just as there is no power more majestic than that of the national will embodied in law, so there is no army more powerful and more capable of endowing its leaders with moral authority and prestige, if they are in harmony with it, than an army which is the armed nation itself, inspired with the determination to defend its independence and organized for the purpose.” ”

“ We hardly yet realize what a revolution in opinion was necessary before the draft could be applied in Britain or the United States. We have a new revelation in democracy which would have come slowly, if at all, if the war had gone more prosperously for the Allies. It would not have come had the war ended in one or two campaigns. Sheer military necessity chiefly explains the change in popular feeling. At least in Britain and Canada the demand for compulsion became so general and formidable that the Governments could not resist. ”

“ Never were free men so bound to enforce the decree that they who take the sword shall perish by the sword. If we fail now the earth will enter upon a long era of unrest and tumult for it is inconceivable that the nations which are withstanding the German assault will ever surrender control over their own destinies whatever be the cost in life and money now or in the future. We must also remember how Germany makes war and steel ourselves [29] to suffer and endure until the despots who would master the world are driven out of the lands they have seized and defiled and beaten into submission. ”

“ The republican institutions and territorial integrity of our country cannot be maintained without the further raising and supporting of armies. There can be no army without men. Men can be had only voluntarily or involuntarily. We have ceased to obtain them voluntarily, and to obtain them involuntarily is the draft—is conscription. If you dispute the fact, and declare that men can still be had voluntarily in sufficient numbers, prove the assertion by yourselves volunteering in such numbers and I shall gladly give up the draft. ”

“ Failure, therefore, to respond to the State’s appeal will imply want of patriotism and expose the recalcitrants to compulsion in its ancient and more odious significance. The Government cannot be partial towards individuals or classes or communities. There is no provision for the purchase of substitutes such as unfortunately occurs in the Canadian Militia Act of 1906, and which constituted a flagrant defect in the draft as applied in the American Civil War. Rich and poor are on a common level. Equal in citizenship, from all equal service and sacrifice are required. ”

“ There is nothing in the history of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812 or the Civil War to suggest that the United States would raise armies by compulsion while the forces required could be secured by the voluntary system. Nearly three years elapsed before the statesmen at Washington resolved to engage in the great struggle between freedom and despotism. It is not necessarily a reproach to the American people that there was long delay before friendly relations with Germany were severed. A divided nation cannot strike with all its strength. ”

“ If men of means and position, who by reason of age or other circumstances are not subject to the draft, refuse to sacrifice convenience or profit for flag and country, how can they ask other men to risk life itself? ”

“ The war is for safety as well as for freedom, and upon its result the free institutions of Canada depend. If it was the [18] unanimous judgment of Parliament that Canada should enter the war, and if among the people there was universal approval of the action of Parliament, how can we withdraw until victory is achieved? How can we continue in the war unless we can maintain and reinforce the regiments in the field? How can we get men except by command of the State when the persuasion of the State has ceased to be effective? There are those who talk wildly about “driving men to slaughter.” ”

“ If employers co-operate heartily and unselfishly with the tribunals any unnecessary delay in registering for medical examination and exemption will be avoided. The selective draft tests the patriotism of all classes. An employer who denounces “shirkers” and yet seeks to hold men who are not essential to his business is as deaf to the appeal from the trenches as he who would evade the call to the colors. ”

“ Events justify Jaures and go far to establish national service as the sound and necessary military system for a democracy at war. The feeling that the army necessarily constitutes a separate class is dying. So is the idea that only those who choose to bear arms are responsible for the national safety. Passing, too, is the notion which divides armies into free men and “conscripts” and regards compulsory [13] national service as destructive of individual freedom and personal independence. ”

“ Conscientious objections are apt to emerge as the demand for men becomes more searching and opportunities for escape from military service upon other grounds become more remote. And, in order to guard against imposition, since “having in your mind is nothing, for it is common learning that the thought of man is not triable,” conscientious objection has been made a ground of exemption in Canada only for [27] those who belong to some well recognized religious denomination which forbids combatant service by the articles of its faith in effect when the Military Service Act was passed. ”

“ There never was so much of mercy and charity and goodwill and brotherhood among men as during the first years of the century. We had the Hague tribunal and treaties of arbitration. We had international law and worldwide organizations for the common protection and enrichment of mankind. It is not strange, therefore, if men believed that there was a happy prospect of enduring peace or if there was general impatience with those who spoke of war and preparation for war. ”

“ It is not suggested that employers should practise intimidation or coercion, but only that they should require their staffs to register and discourage dubious petitions for relief. We may not regard sacrifice as the exclusive duty and privilege of soldiers. Men may not live, write and speak as though the war had no relation to themselves or as though they knew no higher duty than to exploit the apprehensions, anxieties and miseries inseparable from war for selfish, personal advantage. ”

“ It is not necessary to consider at length the immediate causes of the war or to marshal the evidence in proof of Great Britain’s disinterested and resolute endeavor to avert the conflict. Few of the great wars of history stand the cold, unimpassioned scrutiny of later generations. ”

“ Many of those in the trenches have borne the strain and shock of war for years, separated from wives and children, from fathers and mothers, from all the associations and interests which give normal life zest and value. They have no obligation to country or Empire which does not lie as clearly upon all of us. If we deny the support which they need we shall be dishonored. ”

“ There is, however, no provision that any occupation or industry shall be absolutely exempted. Each individual claim for exemption must be considered on its merits, but the general dispositions of the law are such as to ensure that civil occupation will compete successfully with military service in any case in which it is established that the withdrawal of the man from his civil occupation would materially diminish the output or production, or seriously impair the service necessary for the maintenance or [22] efficiency of the expeditionary force, or for the support of the people at home. ”