THE HUNGER FOR WAR by C. M. S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 5, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 23.

THE HUNGER FOR WAR.

By C. M. S.

This is not a time of peace, nor of love of peace. The Gospel of peace does not hold the attention of the masses, and many who claim the name of Christian are loud in their plaudits of the heroes of the battle-field. The literature of war is the literature that sells. What our red-wet histories do not supply is furnished by the fervid imagination of the fiction-vender, and novels of the battle-field type are being turned out by the hundred thousand—and turned out in such quantities because the people are demanding that kind of literature. One book reviewer, in referring to this fact, says, “If you believe that the fiction-reading public is wearying of blood and battle, and craving a respite from the historical romance, you need but to read the titles of the popular novels issued in April to be convinced of your mistake.” There were eighty-eight of these war romances issued in the month of April; and April is not an exception in this matter. It is but an indication of the trend in public reading. This increased drugging of the mind is in perfect harmony and keeping perfect step with the increased drugging of the body, mentioned elsewhere in these columns, and shows a tendency far removed from the cultivation of peace. These retrograding conditions are deplorable, and their results unspeakably sad. C. M. S.