Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/203

tries now at war. Everybody is helpless and cannot see that this war, wanted by nobody and brought on only by the panic of the mob, is an infernal madness, because, as I said, the panic of the mob has seized and paralysed the brains of everybody. One can see this even in Professor Dickinson, who writes to inveigh against the war,-to denounce the rulers, soldiers and diplomats for bringing on this war. Professor Dickinson too, without being conscious of it, has the panic of the mob in his brain. He begins his article by stating that this article of his is not a "stop the war" paper. He goes on to say: "Being in the war, I think, as all Englishmen think, we must go on fighting until we can emerge from it with our terroritory and security intact and with the future peace of Europe assured as far as human wisdom can assure it." The integrity and security of the British Empire and the future peace of Europe to be obtained only by going on indefinitely spending nine million pounds sterling of good money and slaughtering thousands of innocent men everyday! The monstrous absurdity of such a proposition, I believe, has only to be stated, to be seen by any one who has not the panic of the mob in his brain. The peace of Europe! Why, I think if this rate of spending and slaughtering goes on for any length of time, there will certainly be peace, but no Europe left on the map of the world. Indeed if there is anything which will show how really and utterly unfit the plain men and women are to decide on the question of peace