Can Pacifists Be Wrong?
Just at this time, when the undergraduate press is most concerned with the great problems of war and peace in common with the entire press of the nation, it is quite pertinent and stimulating to have a sane and clarifying statement come from the pen of a man who knows what he is writing about because of his War record and who has also been concerned for a period of years about the proper attitude for the intelligent man to take in respect to Pacifism and Militarism.
We refer to a recent communication to the editor of The Dartmouth from Prof. William A. Eddy of the Department of English. This is a time when undergraduate editors and zealous student promoters for the National Student League and other anti-war organizations denounce the moves of Mussolini as the acts of a tyrant and despot; they applaud economic sanctions laid down by the League of Nations; but there must be no war! Mr. Eddy asks them one question: "Is War Ever Righteous?"
He wants to know the answer. So do we all. But we suspect that he has, himself, given the answer and that his statement of the situation is not only thoughtful and accurate but it is the inevitable one. The letter follows:
"Though I go as far as most of my liberalfriends in damning the miscarriages ofcivilization, when the army comes up fordiscussion I find myself written down anass. Men obviously my intellectual superiors circulate pledges never to beararms under any circumstances, and proclaim dogmatically that warfare is neverdefensive or justifiable but always offensiveand wicked. All war, they assure me, isequally bad, and no literate man in hissenses can take up arms in any future war.Armistice Day ceremonies have become anoccasion for patronizing (and insulting) thememory of the poor, deluded, unenlightened youths of 1917! When I retort that Iam still glad that the Belgians opposed theinvaders in 1914, and that I think morehighly of the human race because of theirresistance, fellow-churchmen eye me withhorror as they would the devil and reachquickly for the holy water; fellow-teacherswonder whether I wouldn't be more, at homein a military school than on the faculty of aliberal college; and fellow radicals questionmy sincerity and dismiss me as useless.
"While I have developed a serious inferiority complex, I have not yet seen thelight of the pacifist doctrine of non-resistance. And yet I would like to be initiatedinto the mystery. I believe that a resort toarms is often the lesser of two evils, and foran illustration of a righteous war I offerEthiopia today. Would our pacifists circulate the pledge never to bear arms in AddisAbaba this week? Do they really believethat abject submission by the nativeswould shame the invaders from their adventure? I ask not for a disquisition on thecauses nor the horrors of war. I have hearda plethora of them in the last fifteen years.I ask for education on just one point: Whatwould the pacifists who triumphed on somany American platforms in the 1920'swant the Ethiopians to do today? And why?' pause for a reply."
Dean Laycock in a New Role Officially installing the box beneath the cornerstone of the White Church a year ago. At left are E. H. Hunter '01, contractor, and Rev. W. H. Spence, pastor of the Church. Oscar Carter, Hanover's best known boss-foreman, directs the lowering operation. The new church will be dedicated this month.
