RIDICULING WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 5

RIDICULING WAR.

MOVEMENT IN U.S.A. "VETERANS OF THE FUTURE." WANT TO BE PAID FIRST. (From Our Owr Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, March 31. The new movement of ridiculing war is spreading like wildfire throughout the United States, to the discomfiture of members of the American Legion. The new deal for peace had come out of Princeton University, where war had one of its early American field days. Launched in prankish vein, the idea has begun to spread with alacrity. They call it "The Veterans of Future Wars." These schoolboys proceed on the premise that they are doomed to become soldiers. The organisation is taking the solemn problems of war — | the veterans, the bonus, Gold Star! mothers and all the other actualities of j real war —and adopting them in advance J as their own. For instance, the i "Veterans of Future Wars" want the ' United States Government to pay them each 1000 dollars bonus immediately. They argue that as "future" victims of war, they ought to get whatever benefits there are. "If we must die," said one "future war" veteran, "we choose to be paid first."

, | Ladies Also Organise. On the heels of the "future war" > veterans has come the . "ladies' auxil--1 iary." At first they called it the "Gold ' | Star Mothers of Future Veterans," but ' some people thought this reflected on Gold Star mothers whose, own war tragedies, all agreed, were not proper subjects of satire, even in a war on war. ■ The ladies' auxiliary of "future war" ; veterans at the New .Jersey college for [ women, a branch of Rutgers, has i launched a drive for funds to build a ■ monument to the "unborn" soldier. r | One chapter of the "veterans" held a i j torchlight parade, the purpose being ' announced as "to crystallise student . sentiment on future wars." A contem- . porary movement, also in satirical vein, is "the association of future war propa- <

gandists," which Rutgers' students have formed. The "future war propagaydists" demand Government pay and free tuition for propaganda they are to write in the "future war." Lawrence A. Woodruff, spokesman for the propagandists, said his organisation would be ready to function when a "military field day" is to be held at the college! "It will be a fine opportunity," he said, "for us to practise writing stories glorifying war. We'll make our stories vivid, and perhaps in that way we may lure more young men into learning the gentle art of killing." Atrocity Stories. The "propagandists" hope to be able to turn out first class "atrocity" stories, calculated to bring young men on the run to the enlistment offices. The possibilities of the futuristic organisations are said to be boundless. Witness the organisation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of a "profiteers of future wars," the purpose of which, as its presi-! dent explained, is "to get in on the gravy, instead of. being made into gravy."

A "profiteer of future wars" would be ! entitled to "free medical examination showing he had flat feet, astigmatism, partial deafness or other disability I exempting him from military service." The organisation proposes to "lobby" for payment in advance for profits to be made from future war supplies of future wars, and it opposes payment of "future war" bonuses and pensions. Buell Webster, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior and national president of the "Profiteers of Future Wars," announced in Troy, New York State, that a companion organisation, the "Gold Diggers of Future Wars," had been established at Sweetbriar College, Sweetbriar, Virginia. He said it would become the women's auxiliary to the "Profiteers." Webster said that in addition to advocating payment in advance of the profits from contracts as yet to be let for war supplies of future battles, the P.F.W. will also campaign for funds to erect monuments on college campuses to honour war victims of the future. Dozens of colleges in the United States now have chapters of veterans of future wars and of the ladies' auxiliaries. They are not inspired by any pacifist group, but by serious young men and women, thinkers and future leaders of the American nation.