The Prospect for Slaughter
ACCORDING to the reports, the entente allies held a conference of their experts on war equipment in London, July 13. David Lloyd George, the British minister of war, spoke of the tremendous advance the allies had made in producing equipment since the big war started; and among other things, he said: "The British navy, until recently, has absorbed more than half the metal workers of this country. The task of building new ships and repairing the old ones for the gigantic navy, and equipping them, occupies the energies of a million men." Mr. George also said: "Most of our new factories now are complete. Most of the machinery has been set up." "But," he continued, "the new factories and workshops we set up have not yet attained one third their full capacity, but their output is now increasing with great rapidity. Our main difficulties in organizing, construction, equipment, labor supply, and readjustment, have been solved." Another one of Mr. George's statements was: "Every great battle furnishes additional proof that this is a war of equipment." With this tremendous advance in the supplying of equipment, what will be the awful slaughter of "civilized" and "Christian" Europe if this war is permitted to continue for another year! Millions upon millions of men have already been slaughtered or maimed for life; and during this summer, the most furious battles are raging all along multiplied hundreds of miles of battle front. What is occurring on the battle fields of the world to-day ought to serve to disillusion any sane mind upon the point that civilization and nominal Christianity are sufficient to prevent bloody wars. Christ is the Prince of peace, and His followers will truly love and stand for peace. But mere civilization, and the mere profession of Christianity, without a personal acquaintance with Christ, only help to make wars all the more furious and bloody. If our great civilization and our boasted scientists had not furnished us with the terrible equipment of this time, men could not be slaughtering one another by machinery as they are to-day. Men should be soberly reviewing their theories and opinions, and placing them side by side with the great, stubborn facts of the times, and then allow them to be modified and enlightened by the clear statements of the divine Word. The Book of God, through its prophetic pages, throws strong daylight into the soul that is darkened or perplexed because of the conditions that we see confronting us in the world.