recently came home from France, where he had been assisting in relief work, said that if the mind of a man could grasp this war in all its meaning and its horror the brain would burst. Any strain there may be upon the minds of Americans who, eight thousand miles from the firing line, are talking complacently about this "horrid war and how it "must be stopped " is not yet perceptible. The pressure upon the brains of such is far removed from the bursting point; they are quite safe. The fact that the people of Europe are fighting for exactly the same reason and with the same devoted spirit that the people of the Pacific Coast would fight if attacked by the Japanese does not seem to have occurred to those fortunate American citizens whose homes are on the western coast. Nor do they seem to understand that Europe can no more tolerate a suggestion of peace from the American Government now than they would should such a suggestion come from Europe at a time when Japan had conquered and still held cities and other territory on the American mainland.

The people of Germany set out to accomplish certain ends. They have achieved a considerable measure of what they intended to do, and would naturally quickly entertain any suggestion of a peace based upon the present status of affairs. The opponents of Germany, Austria, and Turkey have not yet reached the height of their war power, and by continuing the war have hopes and a good prospect of wresting from their enemies the advantage the latter have gained so far. Peace at this time for the Allies would be exactly the same thing as if the United States, in the course of a war with Japan in which the Japanese had succeeded in taking Hawaii, the Philippines, and San Francisco, and before the resisting strength of the country had been mobilized, agreed to a peace leaving this territory in Japanese hands for the simple reason that it would save further bloodshed, suffering, and expense. By a unanimous vote the American people would reject such a peace.

I put this idea up to one of the strongestvoiced pacifists in California. He replied with something about kings and emperors, and when reminded that France was the second greatest republic, that the democracy of the English people was unquestioned, and that racial integrity demanded home rule, he quoted the statement alleged to have been

made by Miss Jane Addams to the effect that the soldiers of France and England had to be made drunk in the trenches before they would make a bayonet charge. That floored me, because Miss Addams will be believed by many; and yet how any sane. intelligent, and honest man or woman could make such a libelous and untruthful statement as a sweeping generalization passes understanding. She may have uttered it in good faith, if she said it at all, and we have only newspaper reports for that; but, if she did, the value of any other comments she may have to make upon the state of affairs in Europe is to be seriously discounted. It is more than unfortunate that people of such standing and value to the world as is possessed by Miss Addams should be credited at this time in America with such statements. They cloud the vision of Americans at a time when they need to exercise their keenest intelligence in keeping before them the real issues of the war, its lessons to America, and in judging the actions of their fellow human beings, whether they be of this land or another.

As in a vision these people of the Pacific Coast see this war coming suddenly to an end by mutual agreement, perhaps upon a suggestion from President Wilson, and the millions of soldiers, carrying the nearly three million already dead, returning to their happy homes to go to work to earn money to send to America to help along that great era of prosperity which is coming to America following this war, as predicted by Judge Gary.

A great good for humanity may come out of this war, and it must be great for the law of compensation to work out; but it will not be a material gain for combatant or neutral. Neither will it be a world-wide surcease from war. The present propaganda of the paci fists is doing a vast spiritual harm to the American people. It is encouraging an egotistical selfishness, a spirit of Pharisaism, destroying their touch with humanity as a whole, and blinding them to what is going on in the world other than bloodshed. It is also further disarming our great Nation, already more helpless than was England on land when this war began-a Nation which is in need of sufficient organized power to enforce its just demands or resist aggression; and nowhere in America is the effect of this malign influence more in evidence than on the Pacific Coast.