p. 11 | Humanizing War

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 47.

"Humanizing War."

One of the things that the Congress has sought hard to attain was to limit the armaments of the nations. Over half of the income of the European nations is now being spent on their armies and navies. The burden upon the people is becoming intolerable. But a recent despatch says: "From the beginning France has fully realized that the jealous suspicion among the powers would prevent the accomplishment of anything in the direction of limitation of armaments."

Shooting and killing men in war can never be humane, no matter how tenderly men may plan for it in their peace discussions. But it would be a grand thing if the support of the great military burden could be lifted from the shoulders of the poor people of the Old World. That thing would certainly be humane. But they think that it can not be done.

Capitalists and Labor Unions.—In an address at Battle Creek, Mich., Oct. 8, 1907, President James W. Van Cleave, of the National Association of Manufacturers, made an authoritative denial of the accusation that the employers' associations of the country are collecting a fund for the suppression of the labor unions, denouncing it as an absurd accusation, and that nothing could be farther from the purposes or the thoughts of the federation. He also denounced emphatically the boycott and the blacklist, stating:

Size of DuPont Powder Mills, Fontanet, Ind., after Explosion, Oct. 15, 1907.

"When I condemn the boycott I condemn it in all its forms and ramifications, including the blacklist, which is only a boycott in another form. When used by labor unions to hurt employers or by employers' associations to hurt workers, the boycott and blacklist are un-American, immoral, and vicious, and have no place in a country like ours. I want to put myself on record by saying that in my lifelong experience as a member and officer of employers' associations, I have never been connected with a concern or an organization employing the blacklist, and I want to put myself on record further in saying that I would not be a member or officer of a corporation or of an organization that employs the blacklist at any time in the future."

And he declared that he spoke for every member of the organization condemning the blacklist, not only as much, but even more than the boycott.