The False Honor of Uniforms
Much criticism is heard of such governments as Germany, for instance, because of the lordship of the military class over the ordinary citizens. On this account one would hardly expect to hear even a hint of the propriety of such a principle in this country. Were it not for other evidences of our progress toward imperialism, one would be surprised to read in a leading San Francisco journal this sentiment: “Evidently there is some sort of concerted move to compel respect to the uniform of Uncle Sam’s soldiers and sailors. It ought to succeed. There is no reason in the world why an enlisted man should not be treated with the same or even more consideration than the ordinary citizen,” etc. The easy infatuation of the rising generation for uniforms is likely to cause the thought of “even more consideration” to become more than a newspaper suggestion in the near future, and such encouragement by the press is ominous. There was once a class of men whose “broad phylacteries” and enlarged “borders” on their garments were supposed to entitle the wearers to extraordinary respect. But the Lord rebuked the thought. That men should be deemed worthy of extraordinary respect because of conspicuous apparel, is neither true republicanism nor true Christianity.