The War-Mad Fever by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 25, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 17.

The War-Mad Fever.

By Editor

A STRIKING evidence of the mental condition of the world has been presented again and again in connection with some of the exciting things taking place, such as the flight of air-ships, aeroplanes, etc. Current Literature, referring to Count Zeppelin's balloon flight, witnessed by thousands in Germany, including the emperor, thus speaks of the effect of that event upon those who beheld it:

" 'The emotional effect of this flight,' says one of the press correspondents, after trying in vain to keep up with the dirigible in a fifty-horse-power automobile, 'on some of the people who witnessed it was remarkable. Some laughed wildly, and apparently without control; others raised their voices in ineffectual cries of welcome and encouragement, others wept, and still others gazed mutely at the apparition in the air. As the air-ship turned a bend in the river beyond Laufen, an old man, feeble, white of beard and wrinkled of face, was crawling painfully to the top of a hill. . . . He reached the crest all out of breath just in time to see it disappear. "Ah, I have seen it!" he exclaimed. His steps were uncertain, he tottered, and the tears were streaming down his face.' " Referring to this, the Springfield Republican says:

"The stories of Germans in all parts of the empire when the Zeppelin air-ship was reported to be destroyed, are more than melancholy, they are sinister in their significance. They seem to reveal a state of mind that regards the frantic pursuit of new and novel engines of war as the highest function of a nation."

Do our readers think when such spectacles call forth all the emotions of humanity in uncontrollable degrees, that they are fulfilling just what God's word has said concerning this time when He tells us that there are spirits of demons going out into all the world and preparing them for the battle of the great day of God Almighty?

Another question is pertinent. Could any such emotion be aroused if those air-ships were used and could be used only for the sole purpose of relieving the wants of humanity? And after that air-ship that was designed to put Germany to the forefront in war machinery of the air was destroyed, in a few days' time offerings to the amount of more than a half-million dollars had been subscribed by the government and private individuals to enable Zeppelin to build another. France is driven to almost the same frenzy of delight in the success of the Wright aeroplane upon which that government has an option.