of brotherhood, which alone maketh
rich and addeth no sorrow. When we are face to face with the elemental
things of life, death and sorrow and loss, the air grows very still and
clear, and we see things in bold outlines.

The Kaiser has done a few things for us. He has made us hate all forms
of tyranny and oppression and autocracy; he has made us hate all forms
of hypocrisy and deceit. There have been some forms of kaiserism
dwelling among us for many years, so veneered with respectability and
custom that some were deceived by them; but the lid is off now--the
veneer has cracked--the veil is torn, and we see things as they are.

When we find ourselves wondering at the German people for having
tolerated the military system for so long, paying taxes for its
maintenance and giving their sons to it, we suddenly remember that we
have paid taxes and given our children, too, to keep up the liquor
traffic, which has less reasons for its existence than the military
system of Germany. Any nation which sets out to give a fair deal to
everyone must divorce itself from the liquor traffic, which deals its
hardest blows on the non-combatants. Right here let us again thank the
Germans for bringing this so clearly to our notice. We despise the
army of the Kaiser for dropping bombs on defenseless people, and
shooting down women and children--we say it violates all laws of
civilized warfare. The liquor traffic has waged war on women and
children all down the centuries. Three thousand women were killed in
the United States in one year by their own husbands who were under the
influence of liquor. Non-combatants! Its attacks on the
non-combatants are not so spectacular in their methods as the tactics
pursued by the Kaiser's men, who line up the defenseless ones in the
public square and turn machine-guns on them. The methods of the liquor
traffic are not so direct or merciful. We shudder with horror as we
read of the terrible outrages committed by the brutal German soldiers.
We rage in our helpless fury that such things should be--and yet we
have known and read of just such happenings in our own country. The
newspapers, in telling of such happenings, usually have one short
illuminative sentence which explains all: "The man had been drinking."
The liquor traffic has outraged and insulted womanhood right here in
our own country in much the same manner as is alleged of the German
soldiers in France and Belgium! Another thing we ha