expressed with sufficient clearness,
so he recast his thought.

"We are going to fight for the future; we are going to die in order
that our grandchildren may not have to endure a similar calamity. If
the enemy triumphs, the war-habit will triumph, and conquest will be the
only means of growth. First they will overcome Europe, then the rest of
the world. Later on, those who have been pillaged will rise up in their
wrath. More wars! . . . We do not want conquests. We desire to regain
Alsace and Lorraine, for their inhabitants wish to return to us . . .
and nothing more. We shall not imitate the enemy, appropriating
territory and jeopardizing the peace of the world. We had enough of that
with Napoleon; we must not repeat that experience. We are going to fight
for our immediate security, and at the same time for the security of
the world--for the life of the weaker nations. If this were a war
of aggression, of mere vanity, of conquest, then we Socialists would
bethink ourselves of our anti-militarism. But this is self-defense, and
the government has not been at fault. Since we are attacked, we must be
united in our defensive."

The carpenter, who was also anti-clerical, was now showing a more
generous tolerance, an amplitude of ideas that embraced all mankind. The
day before he had met at the administration office a Reservist who was
just leaving to join his regiment. At a glance he saw that this man was
a priest.

"I am a carpenter," he had said to him, by way of introduction, "and
you, comrade, are working in the churches?"

He employed this figure of speech in order that the priest might not
suspect him of anything offensive. The two had clasped hands.

"I do not take much stock in the clerical cowl," Robert explained
to Desnoyers. "For some time I have not been on friendly terms with
religion. But in every walk of life there must be good people, and the
good people ought to understand each other in a crisis like this. Don't
you think so, Boss?"

The war coincided with his socialistic tendencies. Before this,
when speaking of future revolution, he had felt a malign pleasure in
imagining all the rich deprived of their fortunes and having to work in
order to exist. Now he was equally enthusiastic at the thought that all
Frenchmen would share the same fate without class distinction.

"All with knapsacks on their backs and eating at mess."

And he was even extending this military sobriety to those who remained
be