The Choice Before Us

The Choice Before Us* By Kemmie Bagley, M Man, Cottonwood Stake w E ARE living in a new world. There are situations now that never existed be- fore. Steam, gasoline and electricity are the three magicians which have accomplished the transformation. They have annihilated space. They have tunnelled the mountains and narrowed the seas. The continents have been linked together. The na- tions are all neighbors. A thousand new points of contact have been created. Nations can never go back to their former isolation. Races can never again hide behind mountains or seas. The neighborhood is here. The problem is how to convert it into a brotherhood. The difficulty in this program lies in the fact that the international world has never been moralized. Statesmen have made a difference between personal morality and na- tional morality. Deceiving others, oppressing the weak, stealing ter- ritory, destroying property and murdering rivals — acts which are criminal between men — are not considered wrong between nations. In short, the diplomacy of the modern world is still Pagan. Barbaric standards have been allowed to remain. It is because of the survival of these ideas that we have also the survival of one of the practices of the primeval world, — WAR, — the custom of settling international disputes by killing men. War belongs to a low stage of human development. It has no rightful place in the civilization of the day. There are men who yet see in it something glorious, but they are men of stunted moral character. Men who are truly civilized look upon it with horror and loathing. It belongs to the dogmas of barbarism. * Speech which won first place at the grand finals of the Y. Contest, June conference, 192 8. M. M. I. A. M Men Public Speaking

THE CHOICE BEFORE US 749 The greatest task that lies before humanity in the remainder of the twentieth century is to check, limit and finally to eliminate the institution of war. If war goes on unchecked, following its present tendencies, it means the destruction of whole races, always the best races, and the downfall of civilization. Yes! it will be difficult to eliminate war. It is so deeply rooted in human institutions. It is so easy to stir up hatreds. So hard to create understandings. It is not enough to want peace or to admire peace or to hope for peace. We must make it. Like all other fine things, it is the result of effort. Jesus pronounced no beatitude on the peace wishers or peace dreamers or peace hopers, but only on the peace makers. And peace can only be made by the efforts of tens of thousands of men who have determined that they will never give up until the victory has been won. But sometimes every effort to get the world into a different mood and practice is discouraged on the ground that all such efforts are hopeless. "Human nature is what it is," runs the argument, "and cannot be changed. There have been wars from the beginning and there will be wars to the end. They are forever inevitable and consequently our only wise course is to prepare for them." This belief that man's intelligence cannot determine the char- acter of human society is not only crudely materialistic, but implies a gross spiritual slavery. It is not only anti-social, it is anti-human; fatal, not only to internationalism, but to all the achieving aspira- tions of man. History declares on every page that human nature can be changed. You cannot change the constitution of the human mind nor the corpuscles of the human blood, but you can change man's ideals, his beliefs, his desires, and when you change these you change his conduct, and when you change his conduct you change the world. Because a thing has existed for centuries, it does not follow that it shall always be. And our protests against war are destined to succeed, just as, centuries earlier in the history of the race, the sentiment of pity and respect for human life called a halt to slavery, witchcraft, torture and sacrifice. There came a time, to Greek and Jewish peoples, when a few set their faces against human sacrifice as a religious rite of their highest faith; bound up (like our wars) with old fealties and with solemn customs and with their most desperate fears. Humble men and women, out of sheer affection for their kind, revolted, and finally there came to be enough to carry a generation with them. It took these people many centuries to rid themselves entirely of

750 IMPROVEMENT ERA human sacrifice. During these centuries they relapsed again and again in periods of national despair. So have we fallen back into warfare, again and again, until in self-pity, in self-defense, in self- assertion of the right to live, not as hitherto a few, but the whole people of the world will brook this thing no longer. For we can have peace. We can have it as soon as we are willing to pay the price. And the price, curiously enough, is not to be expressed in money, nor in lives lost, nor in the abandonment of anything that makes for real national greatness. The only thing to be sacrificed is pride. The only thing to be destroyed is the cruel lie that lives in the existing conception of nationality. Unless the creed of this nationalistic dogma is stamped out, the world war will be repeated again and again, with greater butchery and with greater shame. The last war was the direct result of forces that were per- fectly open in their operation and perfectly certain in their issue. The statesmen of the world could not, or did not, rise above the provincialism of nationality. Remorselessly, or blindly, or stupidly, — some will say deliberately, — they drove the great machines of modern warfare into each other, head on. And that titanic struggle taught us this, if nothing else, that any program that ignores the superlative value of human life must lead finally to disaster. Civilization based on the doctrine of na- tionality has failed. The old program is damned to all eternity. The new program must rest on the idea Burns had in mind when he wrote, "a man's a man for a' that." It doesn't matter whether he is stamped French or German, Italian or English, Scandinavian or Hebrew. Patriotism is, assuredly, one of the strongest and purest instincts of the soul. Noble as it is, however, it cannot be regarded as a complete and final virtue in itself, but only one step onward in the development of that final virtue which is the sentiment, not of country, but of humanity. We all love America. We cherish her history, revere her heroes, admire her people, hail her destiny. Noble sentiment? Yes! But humanity is more important than nationality. One's first duty is not to country but to mankind. "Let no man glory in this," says Baha, "that he loves his country. Let him rather glory in this that he loves his fellow-man." For just as surely as feudalism gave way to nationalism, so must nationalism merge into federation in the movement of civilization. Democracies must unite, not as nations, not as sovereignties, not as governments, but as peoples. The humanization of nations means the passing of war.

THE CHOICE BEFORE US 751 Now there is a choice before us: We can ally ourselves with the vanishing past. We can follow the wasting precedents of former years. We can re-erect the old barriers, call up the old prejudices, rehabilitate the old fears, renew the old hatreds, re-assert the doctrine of nationality and proceed to get ready for the next war. Or— We can pledge our efforts to a better future. We can at- tempt a beautiful and original achievement, and, reflecting that ancient saying, "nothing that is human is. to me foreign," we can become so united that neither militarism nor nationality nor the foolish pride of governments can ever again sow the earth with death. Real Joy The way to find joy in your life, young man, Is to lose yourself in your work. For the restless soul is the one who tries All the up-hill pulls to shirk. Just fix a high goal for yourself, young man, Not yourself, but the work of your hands, Sure-guided and manned by a clear-set brain And a heart that understands. Just forget you are striving or struggling, boy. Forget yourself and your cults, Forget all the tiresome and wearisome hours, With your eye on the great results. With an interest keen and a purpose strong, Go forth at each new-born day, Unnoted the heat or the wintry blast Or the thorns along the way. Remember no more the up-hill climb, Nor that you must push and sweat; Remember no more the heavy road — The end you've no need to forget. In the world's mad rush for pleasure, boy, In its wild stampede for a "thrill," Is the curse of earth and Folly's crown And a death blow to manly will. After all, 'tis the aim that's the noble theme; Rewards in the harvest lurk; And your soul will thrill when the goal you've gained. Man, lose yourself in your work. Tridell, Utah MRS. ALICE MORRILL