alized. It must be
through the banding together and determined and combined effort of the
Unions, local, national, and international, and through the weight of
the workers' influence in all their associations and in all countries.
To put much reliance in this matter upon the "classes" is rash; for
though just now the latter are sentimentalizing freely over the
subject--having got into nearer touch with it than ever before--yet when
all is settled down, and the day arrives once more that _their_
interests point to war, it is only too likely that they (or the majority
of them) will not hesitate to sacrifice the masses--unless, indeed, the
power to do so has already departed from them.

And it is no good for _us_ to sentimentalize on the subject. We must not
blink facts. And the fact is that "it's a long way" to _Never Again_.
The _causes_ of War must be destroyed first; and, as I have more than
once tried to make clear, the causes ramify through our midst; they are
like the roots, pervading the body politic, of some fell disease whose
outbreak on the surface shocks and affrights us. To dislodge and
extirpate these roots is a long business. But there is this consolation
about it--that it is a business which we can all of us begin at once, in
our own lives!

Probably wars will still for many a century continue, though less
frequent we hope. And if the people themselves _want_ to fight, and must
fight, who is to say them Nay? In such case we need not be overmuch
troubled. There are many things worse than fighting; and there are many
wounds and injuries which people inflict on each other worse than bodily
wounds and injuries--only they are not so plain to see. But I certainly
would say--as indeed the peasant says in every land--"Let those who
begin the quarrel do the fighting"; and let those who have to do the
fighting and bear the brunt of it (including the women) decide whether
there _shall_ be fighting or not. To leave the dread arbitrament of War
in the hands of private groups and cliques who, for their own ends and
interests, are willing to see the widespread slaughter of their
fellow-countrymen and the ruin of innumerable homes is hateful beyond
words.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] See "A War-Note for Democrats," by H.M. Tomlinson _(English
Review_, December, 1914). "This war was bound to come, and we've got to
finish it proper. No more of this bloody rot for the kids, an' chance
it."

XVII

THE TREE OF LIFE

_Fe