The Parable Of The Alligator

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 264, 5 August 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Parable Of The Alligator

hi-; Foreign Policy Association tins ligureu out the cost ol iw'i || armaments to the nations of I lie world in the year HloS. It B comes to about eighteen billion dollars. That’s a lot o: money. JL It represents a year’s labour for at least 20.000 (ton men. writes Mr. Stuart Chase in Hie "Christian Century. "•Once there wa.s a man who lived alone with his tamil. on a steamy tropical river. He had a great many children. They had thin bodies long faces and large months. They were alwa-.s hungry. It was more than the man could do to till them up. He had a wife who cooked and swept. She had a small tight mouth, and hardly ever opened it. "All that the family had to eat was fish. Every da.-, the nmu went out -■a the river with his boat and net. The children stood on 1 he bank and opened th-eir wide mouths wider. Under the enn Hie river became a copper furnace, ami Hie mosquitoes were terrible. "When liis net was full, or as full as he could gel it. Hie man divided Hie fish into two idles-. Then he paddled over Io Hie side of tin- river where the reed-s were thick and high. In Hie middle of Hie reeds wins a large alligator making amiable noises- The alligator had been there as long as the man could remember, and his lath-er and gram! lot her Indole him. the man believed Hurt Hie alligator was the guardian of Ids establishment. If the alligator left, t lie defeneelessness of his home would be incalculable. So incalculable Hint Hie man had never calculated it ; nor had his ftilher and grandfa th er before bi in. "But Lt had lo be admitted Hie alligator ate a lot of lish. A large proportion of the cat cl), every liny. "So the man would feed the alligator one fat lish after another until its amiable noises were hushed by digestive processes, and then he would paddle the rest of the catch back to the hungry children. They would still be on the bank: their mouth.- wider than ever, tits wife would look at the tis-b wilb contempt and fry them without a word. Tile children ale them, bones and nil. but seemed lo be bolto-mless. "Ilin- very tint day. two of Hie children went in swimming. They swam mu towards Hie reeds. When the man slopped to give the alligator its daily take, I he‘protector did not seem very hungry. True, it consumed Hie tissli.

mil in a slaw, dreamy way. The man was worried. What it it should gel sick? When lie got home, for once the family had almost enough to eat. Two of the heartiest eaters were missing from the table. IV here could they lie? The man loved his children, for all the work -they gave him. and he was much distressed. To his astonishment, he suddenly heard his wife talking She said : " 'll' I were you. I’d get rid of that alligator.' ” 'Bin.' said the man, deeply sihbcked. ’it is our protect or. ami that of out fathers and grandf-at-h-i’-rs before ns.' " ’Fine.' said his wife. 'lt has taken a good share of our food every day for years, ami now it's taken Annabel and Benjamin.’ ’•’This.’ -said the man. removing his hat. ’is Hie most momentous crisis in Hie history of mankind.' " ‘Crisis, my eye.’ said his wife. ‘Give me that clit-b. the one with the spikes on it.' "’No.’ said Hie man. Til do it. But it destroys all my d'ceitesl principles and convictions, and those of my father ami grandfather before me. "'lt’s about time.’ said his wife. "Do you iliink the man in my story was feeble-minded? Perhaps be was. All Hie nations of Hie world put together are behaving in a very similar way. Are all ihe miiions of the world feeble-minded? They are gi\ ing a large propoi't.iou of their livelihood to a gigantic mechanism which is more dost riictive Hum any alligator. Every now and tlicu it -eats some oi the nations’ children. "In 1038 it devoured eighteen billion dollars’ worth of labour and resources, while children, women, men, died horribly in Spain and China. In 1939 Hie bill will be perhaps twenty-five billions and the d-tsad bow many ? No .one nation, not even the United States, can disarm today. Not while the dictators are marching. Indeed. it is primarily due to the dictators) that world armaments have trebled in Hie last live years. "Tlie more lish Hie alligator gets, the larger he grows, ami Hie more lie demands. He will eat us out of house and home, out ol this .planet, unless in get together pretty soon to club him into in sensibility.”