The Healing of Nations and the Hidden Sources of Their Strife eBook
Edward Carpenter
All the same, if the word is to be “Never
Again!” it must come through the masses themselves
(from whom the fighters are mainly drawn); it must
be through them that this consummation must be realized.
It must be through the banding together and determined
and combined effort of the Unions, local, national,
and international, and through the weight of the workers’
influence in all their associations and in all countries.
To put much reliance in this matter upon the “classes”
is rash; for though just now the latter are sentimentalizing
freely over the subject—having got into
nearer touch with it than ever before—yet
when all is settled down, and the day arrives once
more that their interests point to war, it
is only too likely that they (or the majority of them)
will not hesitate to sacrifice the masses—unless,
indeed, the power to do so has already departed from
them.
And it is no good for us to sentimentalize
on the subject. We must not blink facts.
And the fact is that “it’s a long way”
to Never Again. The causes of War
must be destroyed first; and, as I have more than
once tried to make clear, the causes ramify through
our midst; they are like the roots, pervading the
body politic, of some fell disease whose outbreak
on the surface shocks and affrights us. To dislodge
and extirpate these roots is a long business.
But there is this consolation about it—that
it is a business which we can all of us begin at once,
in our own lives!
Probably wars will still for many a century continue,
though less frequent we hope. And if the people
themselves want to fight, and must fight, who
is to say them Nay? In such case we need not be
overmuch troubled. There are many things worse
than fighting; and there are many wounds and injuries
which people inflict on each other worse than bodily
wounds and injuries—only they are not so
plain to see. But I certainly would say—as
indeed the peasant says in every land—“Let
those who begin the quarrel do the fighting”;
and let those who have to do the fighting and bear
the brunt of it (including the women) decide whether
there shall be fighting or not. To leave
the dread arbitrament of War in the hands of private
groups and cliques who, for their own ends and interests,
are willing to see the widespread slaughter of their
fellow-countrymen and the ruin of innumerable homes
is hateful beyond words.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] See “A War-Note for Democrats,” by
H.M. Tomlinson (English Review, December,
1914). “This war was bound to come, and
we’ve got to finish it proper. No more
of this bloody rot for the kids, an’ chance
it.”
