y champion
universal conscription, in the hope that after the "war for democracy"
"the socialist movement will know how to 'employ such a disciplined
army' in building the co-operative commonwealth."[22]

As for the men of religion, they have rushed headlong into the fray. At
a meeting of Methodist ministers in New York, one of them, a pastor from
Bridgeport, Connecticut, straightforwardly declared, "If I must choose
between my country and my God, I have made up my mind to choose God." He
was hooted and threatened by the other members of the assembly, five
hundred in number; was denounced as a traitor. Newel Dwight Hillis,
preaching in the Henry Ward Beecher church, said: "All God's teachings
concerning forgiveness must be abrogated as far as Germany is concerned.
When the Germans have been shot I will forgive them their atrocities.
But if we agree to forgive Germany after the war, I shall think that the
world has gone mad."

Billy Sunday, a sort of howling dervish, sprung from heaven knows where,
brays to huge crowds a militarist gospel. He spouts his sermons like a
sewer disgorging filth; he calls upon the Good Old God (who is
apparently to be found in other places besides Berlin), buttonholes him,
enrols him willy-nilly. A cartoon of Boardman Robinson's shows Billy
Sunday arrayed as a recruiting sergeant, dragging Christ by a halter and
shouting: "I got him! He's plumb dippy over going to war." Fashionable
folk, ladies included, are infatuated with this preacher; they delight
to debase themselves in God's company. The ministers of religion, too,
are on Billy Sunday's side. The exceptions may be counted on the fingers
of one hand. Most notable among the exceptions is the pastor of the
church of the Messiah in New York, John Haynes Holmes by name, from whom
I had the honour of receiving a magnificent letter in February, 1917,
just before the United States entered the war. In its July number "The
Masses" published an admirable declaration issued by Holmes to his
flock. It was entitled, What shall I do? He refuses to exclude any
nation from the human community. The church of the Messiah will not
respond to any militarist appeal. His conscience constrains him to
refuse conscription. He will obey his conscience at any cost. "God
helping me, I can no otherwise."--Those who resist the war madness
constitute a little Church where persons of all parties make common
cause, Christians, atheists, Quakers, artists, socialists, et