ing all problems,
making all difficulties clear! The scales will fall from his eyes, the
shackles will be torn from his limbs--he will leap up with a cry of
thankfulness, he will stride forth a free man at last! A man
delivered from his self-created slavery! A man who will never more
be trapped--whom no blandishments will cajole, whom no threats will
frighten; who from tonight on will move forward, and not backward, who
will study and understand, who will gird on his sword and take his
place in the army of his comrades and brothers. Who will carry the good
tidings to others, as I have carried them to him--priceless gift of
liberty and light that is neither mine nor his, but is the heritage of
the soul of man! Working-men, working-men--comrades! open your eyes and
look about you! You have lived so long in the toil and heat that your
senses are dulled, your souls are numbed; but realize once in your lives
this world in which you dwell--tear off the rags of its customs and
conventions--behold it as it is, in all its hideous nakedness! Realize
it, realize it! Realize that out upon the plains of Manchuria tonight
two hostile armies are facing each other--that now, while we are seated
here, a million human beings may be hurled at each other's throats,
striving with the fury of maniacs to tear each other to pieces! And this
in the twentieth century, nineteen hundred years since the Prince of
Peace was born on earth! Nineteen hundred years that his words have been
preached as divine, and here two armies of men are rending and tearing
each other like the wild beasts of the forest! Philosophers have
reasoned, prophets have denounced, poets have wept and pleaded--and
still this hideous Monster roams at large! We have schools and colleges,
newspapers and books; we have searched the heavens and the earth, we
have weighed and probed and reasoned--and all to equip men to destroy
each other! We call it War, and pass it by--but do not put me off with
platitudes and conventions--come with me, come with me--realize it!
See the bodies of men pierced by bullets, blown into pieces by bursting
shells! Hear the crunching of the bayonet, plunged into human flesh;
hear the groans and shrieks of agony, see the faces of men crazed by
pain, turned into fiends by fury and hate! Put your hand upon that piece
of flesh--it is hot and quivering--just now it was a part of a man! This
blood is still steaming--it was driven by a human heart! Almighty God!
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