e badge of the Grand Army of
the Republic is a certificate of merit. The cross of the Legion of
Honor opens the door to social and political and business prosperity.
Battle is regarded as a supreme test of sturdy manhood, and the harsh
discipline of the camp as education for the finer arts of the council.
War creates a heroism which later devotes itself to spiritual ends.

Moreover, say the advocates, the interests of class require force for
their conservation. The hereditary nobility of Europe was founded by
military process for military purposes, and, with the passing of war,
loses its warrant for existence. On the other hand, it is claimed that
the under classes may come into the enjoyment of their inalienable
rights, common to all humanity, only by means of the sword. Witness
the peasantry of Russia! Even in America so great a prophet as Henry
Ward Beecher foresaw a tragic day when the bivouac of capital would be
set against the camp of labor. And lesser seers are not lacking who
freely predict, even for our democratic land, a desperate rebellion of
a proletariat of poverty against an aristocracy of wealth.

Finally, the demands of national egoism are urged in behalf of war.
For example, Japan needs new territory for her growing millions and
must assume the conqueror's role. Or France goes mad with the lust of
empire and goes forth untamed until the day of Waterloo. Or Great
Britain must have new markets; and, falsely reasoning that trade
follows the flag, and the flag follows the bayonet, she seizes a realm
upon which the sun may never set. Or the interests of white men and
yellow men, of black men or red men, clash; and then the cannon must
be the final test, might must make right, and the strongest must
survive. The greed of territorial aggrandizement, the spirit of
national adventure, the longing for commercial supremacy, the honor of
a country, the pride of racial achievement--each is urged to justify
the necessity for bloodshed and carnage. Such are the arguments of the
advocates of war.

To balance these, the advocates of peace plead four greater
considerations: against personal glory, the economic cost of
militarism; against the moral education of war, the higher heroism of
peace; against class interests, the sanctity of human life; and
against national egoism, the deeper spirit of national altruism.

A single modern battleship costs more than the combined value of the
property and endowment of all the c