ANOTHER ARMY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 39.

“ANOTHER ARMY.”

In a recent issue of the Pacific Ensign, Jessie H. Parkinson discourses on “Two Armies.” After referring to the pride with which many people will point to the fact that father, brother, or son was in the battle of Manila, or Santiago, she portrays another army in the following manner:—

“There is another army of America that is not so much talked of in these exciting times. See them as they march on, on, on, unheeded by the vast throngs—marching whither? and for what? Not one of this vast army will ever return. Not one?—No, not one! See them as they march along—men and women, yes, even boys and girls.

“No mother will ever say with tender pride, ‘My son was in that army;’ no child will ever rejoice to tell his comrades, ‘Papa belonged to that army and fell in the great battle.’ No sorrowing widow will receive a pension for the loss of her husband. No flowers of honor will bedeck the graves of the fallen.

“What are the fruits of victory won by such an army as this? What are the fruits?—Poverty, crime, insanity, enfeebled bodies, weakened intellects, blasted hopes, desolate homes, children suffering for the sins of parents, wrecked and ruined lives, lost souls.

“Where is this army going?—Look down, down, down the long line and behold its destination—one hundred thousand graves dug for the army of last year in this free America, another hundred thousand or more for the new army that follows it this year, and the next, and the next, for every year a new and a larger army is being mustered in to take the place of the one last destroyed. Your son may be one of the recruits, father; your daughter may be called for next, mother. The recruiting sergeant spares neither high nor low; mother’s tears and father’s entreaties are alike unheeded by him.

“But can we not intervene as we have done in Cuba? Has our government nothing to say about this needless slaughter?—Aye, our government has something to say, and this is what it says to the devil’s recruiting sergeant, the rum fiend: ‘We must have revenue to carry on the affairs of the nation, and for your gold we will give you a bond, under our hand and seal, agreeing to deliver up to you every year one hundred thousand boys and girls, to fill one hundred thousand drunkards’ graves.’ And the same unholy partnership is entered into between this agent of the devil and our State, our country, and our city. And the money goes to help build and maintain the insane asylums, paupers’ homes, and penitentiaries resulting from it.

“Do you point to the 260 victims of Spanish treachery? For every soul who went down on the Maine there are twenty-score lives destroyed in the United States every year, victims of this unholy greed and criminal indifference.”