THE TREES AND WAR 



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ITH all the talk 

 of war, and all 

 the need of 

 doing our best 

 to win that 

 war, we can 

 not help think- 

 ing of the 

 place that the 

 trees have 

 held, and will hold, in man's strife with 

 other men. It seems too bad that the 

 great, patient trees should have a part 

 in anything so bad as war is. If they 

 have souls, they must be as surely against 

 the crime of warfare as all right-thinking 

 men are against it. I speak of war in 

 this case as I would speak of slavery or 

 of any other crime against humanity that 

 ought to be done away with. 



As for the present war, we are in it now, 

 and the only way out is forward. We 

 have got to see it through, and I find, each 

 day, that I feel more strongly than the day 

 before that I should Hke to be at the front, 

 in the thick of it, that I might help in that 

 way or in any way to make war less likely 

 in the future. Our Congress has stated 

 that we are to take our part for the good 

 of the people of the world, and our Presi- 

 dent has approved of that course. All of 

 us support our Government in this idea. 

 Our duty is to make it more easy for the 

 everyday folks to say how they shall run 

 their affairs, instead of having these af- 

 fairs run selfishly by kings, and dukes, 

 and uniforms, and gold-braid, and pride- 

 of-birth, and lust-of-power. 



Peace is no less blessed than it ever 

 was, and war is no less cruel. But the 

 first thing right now is to help bring about, 

 even through war itself, a world-wide 

 beUef in the rights of the many to make 

 their own rules for the greatest good of 

 the greatest number, as against the 

 wicked selfishness of the few. If all the 

 great nations and the German people 



form a great nation — will come to a belief 

 in what Abraham Lincoln called " a gov- 

 ernment of the people, by the people, and 

 for the people," then we can be pretty sure 

 that war will cease. And we are fighting 

 now to safeguard that form of govern- 

 ment,- Democracy, in Europe as well as 

 in America. 



MY two boys are too little to realize 

 what war means. They would be 

 much pleased to see their father in a uni- 

 form, and to have him carry a flag, or 

 shoot a gun, and march away to fight the 

 enemy. The older one is very proud of 

 the soldier grandfather who fought 

 against slavery, and they would be just as 

 proud to have their own father fight 

 against the equally wrong use of power in 

 the present day. 



With the girls it is different. They are 

 older, and they know what it might mean 

 if the other fellow shot first and shot 

 straighter, or if a ship were blown up and 

 all those on board were drowned. I over- 

 heard one of them a few nights ago, and 

 got about what the eavesdropper is said 

 always to get. 



She was saying her prayers, and, as I 

 remember, a part of the prayer was about 

 like this: 



"Dear Lord, even if father is right 

 mean to us sometimes when we don't 

 really intend to be bad, please don't let 

 him go away to the war and get killed." 



I tiptoed away with some very mixed 

 thoughts. 



WE are all trying to do our bit, as they 

 say in England. Early in the 

 morning, and after the day's work is over, 

 so long as there is light, we are gardening 

 to help raise the food that we will need 

 this summer. Even the little boys have 

 staked out tiny plots, and have bordered 

 them with the rough stones that they 

 spaded up. One of the girls was inclined 



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