“THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER."

White Ribbon, Volume 41, Issue 487, 18 April 1936, Page 4

“THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER."

One of the strongest indictments of war recently published, is that by Dr Henry Fosdick, of New York, w hich w ; > printed in the Christian World of |.,n. don. 1 >r. Fosdick says: I have an account to settle between my s«.ul and the Unknown Soldier You may not say that I. !>eing a Christian minister, did not know him 1 knew him well. From the north of Scotland, where they planted the s«, with mines, to the trenches of France, I lived with him, and his fellows, British. Australian, New Zealander, French, Am erican. The places where he fought, from Ypres through the Somme huttletield to the southern trenches, l saw while he still was there. I lived with him in dugouts, in the trenches, and on destroyers, searching for submarines oil the shores of France. Short of actual battle, from training camp to hospital, from the fleet to No-Man's Land, I. a Christian minister, saw the war. Moreover, I, a Chrstian minister, participated in it. I. too, was i>ersuaded that it was a war to end war. I, too, was a gullible fool and thought that modern war could somehow me world safe for democracy. They sent men like me to explain to the army the high meanings of war and, by every argument we could command, to strengthen their morale. I wonder if 1 ever spok * to the Unknow n Soldier. RECEIVED HIMSELF. HE DECEIVED OTHERS One night in a ruined liam behind the lines, I spoke at sunset to a company of hand-grenadiers who were going out that night to raid the German trenches. They told me that on the average no more than half a company came hack from such a raid, and 1 a minister of Christ, tried to nerve them for their suicidal and murderous endeavour. T wonder if the Unknown Soldiei was in that l>arn that night. Once in a dugout which in other days had been a French wine cellar I bade Godspeed at two in the morning to a o* - tail of men going out on patrol in NoMan’s Jjand. Then, with my admonitions in their ears, they went down from the second to the find-line trenches and so out to No-Man’s I wonder if the Unknown Soldier w-as in that dugout. I have an account to settle between my soul and the Unknown soldier. 1 deceived him. I deceived myself first, unwittingly, and then T deceived him. assuring him that good consequence could come out of that. As a matter of hard-headed, biological fact, w r hat good can come out of that? Mad civilisation, you cannot sacrifice on bloody altars Richest of your breed and expect anything to compensate for that. So Nve think of our Unknown Sold er as an idealist, rising up in answer to a human call and making ihe. sacrifice ’f his life before leaving Fbs count?) seemed to him like Uhrist Himself, say

I njr, any man would come after Me. let him deny himself and take up hh ross daily, and follow Me.” Far from I jppoaling to his worst, the war brought out his best —his loyalty, his courage, j)jg venturesomeness, his care for the I iown-trodden, his capacity for selfsacrifice. The noblest qualities of his voung manhood were aroused. He went ut to France a flam ins: patriot and in .ecret quoted Rupert Hrooke to his own «oul: If I should die. think this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England.” There, you say, is the Unknown Soliier. WAR— prostitution of thf. NORLEST SOUL. Ves, indeed, did you suppose I never had met him? 1 talked with him many «. time. When the words that I would jpenk about war are a blistering furv on my lips and the encouragement ! :ave to war is a deep self-condemnation in my heart, it is of that I think. For I watched war lay its hands on thes** strongest, loveliest things in men and use the noblest attributes of the human spirit for what ungodly deeds! Is there anything more infernal than this, to take the best that is in man and use It 'o do what war does? This is the ultimate description of war —it is the prostitution of the noblest pow’ers of the human soul to the most dastardly leeds, the most abysmal cruelties of which our human nature is capable That is war. O war, I hate you most of all for this, that you do lay your hands on the noblest elements in human character, with which we might make a heaven on Kirth, and you use them to make a hell on earth instead. Von take even our science, the fruit of our dedicated intelligence, by means of which w*e might build here the City of God, and, using it. you fill the earth instead with new wap of slaughtering men. You take our royalty, our unselfishness, with which we "light make the earth beautiful, and. using these, our finest qualities, you make death fall from the sky and burst up from the sea and hurtle from unseen ambuscade sixty miles aw'ay; you blast fathers in the trenches with gas while you are starving their children at home with blockades; and you so bedevil the world that fifteen years after the Armistice we can not be sure who won the war, so sunk in the same disaster are victors and vanquished alike. T am not trying to make you sentimental about this. T want you to be hard-headed. We can have on the one *ide this monstrous thing or we can have Christ. O my country, stay out of war! Co-operate with the nations In •very movement that has any hope for Peace: but set your faces steadfastly and forever against being drawn into another war! O Church of Christ, stay out of war! Withdraw from every al(Continuod on page 12).

My dear Chief, bow glad I am to see you lxuk again. I'm tired of holding the fort down here. Well, you’d have S<een much more weary had you joined in the advance at Convention instead of h< ’ding the fort here. And I cun assuit you we’ll both be more thoroughly tired when we’ve got through all the jobs Convention has set us to do. Why? Have they decided to make a big advance? And how do we come into the picture? We don’t come into the picture, dear Imp. We just stay and keep steam up while others do the advancing In what direction do we advance? First, in educating the voters. Ha! Ha! I see your point. Education mean* literature and more facts collected for the advance guard to use. That's so! We’ve got to get busy What is the first move to l>e? The first thing is a Day of l’rayer. That’s a good start anyway. Doesn't the poet say, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of"? He does, and our President has sent in some suggestions for prayer. One of them is to pray for an increased circulation of our official organ That’s a good move, isn't it? Yes. very good, but rememl»er, you young imp, it means we’ve got to work harder than ever to make our official organ worthy to be an educative force. Work harder! Aye! Does that mean that I’m to work 21 hours a day? I Hin t l>e silly. I’ll let you off w ith less than that. But remember, we’ve got to provide educative matter for L.T.L.’s in the Supplement, for Y’s in the Beacon, and for White Ribboners in the paper. It’s a big order, my Editor. But we don’t want an easy job, and we know where strength can U* got for the hard tasks. Rut tell me, dear Chief, if we gvt these facts and put them in the paper, how will they reach the folk who ought to have them?

That’s the second part oi our plan Prayer Day is followed by White Rib bon Day. 1 see what you mean. They pra> fi : an increased circulation and then go out and help God to answer their prayers. Say rather they let God have His way with them, and use them to do His work. What is the plan of campaign? Well, we make our first move by a four months' campaign to get the White Kiblton into as many homes as possible. We offer a prize of a guinea to every district sending in 100 new subscribers. My word! Rut ain't you generous! Not a hit, if we get 100 subscriliers we can well afford a guinea. And do we send out a paper for W.P. I >ay? We do, my Imp, and several requests have been received that we write it in dialogue form. How long is this campaign to lust'.' Until July 31st, and then 1 hope our Dominion Executive will follow up with a campaign for new meml>ers. This could be linked with Franchise Day. We worked until we won the Franchise, now let us get more women linked up with us, to learn how to use the Franchise to abolish the Liquor Trade, to promote peace and purity. Hy the way, was that remit carried to reduce subscription to 1/6 per year? It was not. That remit and the one to reduce the membership fee both lapsed for want of a seconder. The first time 1 have known a remit not to have a seconder. Hut, my dear Editor, the fee of 2/7 per year is not the only charge upon members. They often have collection* and Bring and Buys. What about them? Let’s look at the question fairly. Collections are voluntary. Rut do you think that even with collections (mostly one penny ones, note), membership fee and White Ribbon subscriptions, an\ member gives more than 10/- a year? Certainly I don't. That is not very much is it? For the sake of our race we are anxious to banish the liquor trade and its attendant evils. 1 think every Christian woman would be willing to give 10/- to such a fine cause in a year. Rut, dear Chief, can they afford it? Very few could not afford it if they were willing to deny themselves a little. Many years ago in this city a poor w idow lost her cow, a source of income to her. A sympathetic group stood round her, telling her how sorry they were for her. Then a rough looking man took off his hat, placed 5/- in il and said, “Friends, I’m sorry 5/-, how much are you sorry?" and he collected the price of a new cow. Everywhere I go I hear women lamenting the evils of the cocktail and the menace of alcohol. Surely most of them will be sorn lOd a month, or say, 2 id a week? I expect you’re right. If you really want a thing from the depths of your heart, you are willing to pay for it.