military conscription, for reasons which are well known to all, and
upon which I need not enter. I am well satisfied it should be so, for
it leaves open to us the possibility of a much nobler service, one which
has never yet been attempted by any modern nation, and that is civil
conscription.

I throw out this suggestion, which may hold the imagination of those who
have noble conceptions of what national life should be and what a nation
should work for, in the hope that some time it may fructify. There is a
prohibition laid on the people in this island against conscription
for military purposes. Is there any reason why we should not have
conscription for civil purposes? Why should not every young man in
Ireland give up two years of his life in a comradeship of labor with
other young men, and be employed under skilled direction in great works
of public utility, in the erection of public buildings, the beautifying
of our cities, reclamation of waste lands, afforestation, and other
desirable objects? The principle of service for the State for
military purposes is admitted in every country, even at last by the
English-speaking peoples. It is easy to be seen how this principle of
conscription could be applied to infinitely nobler ends--to the building
up of a beautiful civilization--and might make the country adopting it
in less than half a century as beautiful as ancient Attica or majestic
as ancient Egypt. While other nations take part of the life of young men
for instruction in war, why should not the State in Ireland, more nobly
inspired, ask of its young men that they should give equally of their
lives to the State, not for the destruction of life, but for the
conservation of life? This service might be asked from all--high and
low, well and humbly born--except from those who can plead the reasons
which exempt people abroad from military service. As things stand today,
if the State undertakes any public work, it does it more expensively by
far than it would be if undertaken by private enterprise. Every person
puts up prices for the State or for municipalities. Labor, land, and
materials are all charged at the highest possible rates, whereas if
there was any really high conception of citizenship and of the functions
of the State, the citizens would agree so that works of public utility,
or those which conspired to add to national dignity, should be done at
least cost to the community. Where there is no national sacrifice