,ver4#jd4jg4jj99;,,end99 ,scanned by ,edward4,w4,badger e-mail psittacusbigfoot4com ,,or e-mail tedworksop4worldonline4co4uk ,,never ,,again6 7,a protest and a warning addressed to the peoples of ,europe7 by ,edward ,carpenter ,never again must this ,thing happen4 ,the time has come -- if the human race does not wish to destroy itself in its own madness -- for men to make up their minds as to what they will do in the future2 for now indeed is it true that we are come to the cross-roads1 we stand at the ,parting of the ,ways4 ,the rapid and enormous growth of scientific invention makes it obvious that ,violence ten times more potent and sinister than that which we are witnessing to-day may very shortly be available for our use -- or abuse -- in ,war4 ,on the other hand who can doubt that the rapid growth of interchange and understanding among the peoples of the world is daily making ,warfare itself1 and the barbarities inevitably connected with it1 more abhorrent to our common humanity8 ,which of these lines are we to follow8 ,along which path are we to go8 ,this is a question which the mass -- peoples of ,europe in the future -- and not merely the ,governments --- will have seriously to ponder and decide4 ,that bodies of men -- as has happened a hundred times in the trenches in ,northern ,france and even on the ,eastern ,front -- should exchange morning salutations and songs in humorous amity1 and then at a word of command should fall to shooting each other2 ,that peasants and artisans1 and shopkeepers and students and schoolmasters1 who have no quarrel whatever1 who on the whole rather respect and honour each other1 should with explosive bombs deliberately blow one another to bits so that even their own mothers could not recognize them2 ,that human beings should use every devilish invention of science with the one purpose of maiming1 blinding1 destroying those against whom they have no personal grudge or grievance2 ,all this is sheer madness4 ,only a short time ago a private soldier said to me3 ,yes1 we had got to be such friends with those ,bavarians in the trenches over against us that if we had returned there again ,i believe nothing could have made us fight with each other2 but of course that point was perceived and we were moved to another part of the ,line4 ,what a criticism in a few words on the whole ,war6 ,a hundred times this or something similar has happened1 and a hundred and a thousand times these 'enemies' who have madly mutilated each other have -- a few minutes later -- been only too glad to dress each other's wounds and share the last contents of their water-bottles4 ,by all the heart-rending experiences which have now become so common and familiar to us2 ,by the fact that to-day there is hardly a family over the greater part of ,europe that is not grieving bitterly over the loss of some dearest member of its circle2 ,by the white faces of the women clad in black1 whom one sees everywhere in the streets of ,berlin and ,brussels and ,paris and ,vienna1 of ,london and ,milan and ,belgrade and ,petrograd2 ,by the sufferings of famine-stricken ,poland1 ravaged already three or four times in the last two years by opposing and alternate armies2 ,by the awful sufferings of the six or seven million ,jews of the ,russian ,pale1 hounded homeless in winter to and1 fro over the frozen earth the old men and women and children perishing of exposure1 fatigue1 and starvation2 ,by the agony of ,serbia1 and the despair of ,belgium2 ,this must not be again6 ,by the five or six million actual combatants already slain2 and1 the strange spectacle of millions of ,women 7over half a million in ,britain1 more in ,france1 multitudes in ,germany and ,america7 manufacturing man-destroying explosive shells in ceaseless stream by day and night2 7,and it is estimated that on the average some fifty shells are expended for every one man slain7 ,by the terrified faces -- as of drowning men -- of those suffering in countless hospitals from shell-shock2 by their trembling hands and1 limbs and horrible dreams at night -- pursued by an ever-living horror2 ,by the curses of the tender-hearted friend who collects in ,no-man's-land between the lines the scattered fragments of his comrade's body -- the dabs of flesh1 the hand1 the head he knows so well1 a boot with a foot still in it -- and puts them all together in a sack for burial2 ,by the silent stupefaction of wives and mothers trying vainly to picture to themselves a death which cannot be pictured2 by the insane laughter of those who having witnessed these things can no longer weep2 ,this must not be again6 ,by the beach at ,gallipoli covered with the prostrate and writhing forms of men exhausted and emaciated with dysentery1 who have crawled down from the hills only to lie out there in the terrible sun tormented with flies and thirst1 or to shiver through the frosty night1 waiting for the tardy arrival of the ,hospital ,ship2 ,by the hundreds of bodies thrown at the last into the sea at sunrise1 for their unceremonious end2 ,and each poor body for all its loathsome state so loved1 so loved by some one far away2 ,by the dear ,lord who in the beautiful legend descended for three days into ,hell that he might redeem mankind2 but these have lived in an actual ,hell for weeks and months together -- ,this must not be again6 ,by the growth and expansion of ,science 7,god forgive the word67 which will inevitably make each future war more devilish and inhuman than the last2 ,by the cry of the black and coloured peoples of the ,earth who have for long enough already said how hard and cruel the faces of the white men seemed to them1 and who now think how black their souls are2 ,by the hardness of heart1 the insensitiveness of a certain kind1 which during a century or more now has been bred by the institutions of ,commercialism2 ,by the habitual betrayal1 through long periods of 'prosperity' and peace1' of men by their fellows -- of the weak by the powerful1 of the generous by the mean1 of the simple and thoughtless by the crafty and selfish2 ,by the huge dividends declared by ,armament ,firms2 by the international agreements of these firms with one another1 even to cozen their own respective ,governments2 ,by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent folk trampled underfoot in the ditch of competition1 the mad1 race in which the devil takes the hindmost2 ,by the treacherous internal warfare of the ordinary industrial life of every country1 the secret betrayal and murder of bodies and souls for profit -- at last written out in letters of blood and fire across the continents1 for all to behold -- ,this must not be again 6 ,let the ,allies by all means accuse ,germany of world-ambition and world-plunder1 and let the ,german people accuse their ,prussian lords but let every nation also search its own heart and accuse itself4 ,for have not the lords of every nation set before themselves the same goal1 the goal of world-ambition and glory and 'empire' and plunder8 ,and have not the mass-peoples of every nation stood meanly by and acclaimed the fraud1 nor spoken out against it1 silently consenting to these things in the prospect of some advantage also to themselves8 ,have not all the nations without exception acted meanly and dastardly towards the out lying black races1 and even towards those more civilized peoples whom they thought weaker than themselves -- and now in the stress of war are they not finding that their own rights and liberties are being slowly filched from them8 ,yes1 that is1 the end of ,glory and of ,greed4 ,but the day of glory is departed4 ,the newspapers1 it is true1 still keep up the phrase4 ,they talk of a battalion covering itself with glory4 ,but the men themselves do not talk so4 ,they know too well what it all means4 ,they see no glory in covering themselves with the blood of their brothers of the opposing trenches2 with whom a few moments before they were joining in songs and jokes4 ,they only say3 ,now that we have begun1 we will see it through -- but it must not be ,again4 ,never ,i think in all the history of the world has there been a thing so great in its way as the present ,british ,army and ,navy4 ,this enormous force1 raised -- except for a small remnant -- by ,voluntary enlistment from all classes of the nation1 and inspired more by a general and protective sense towards the ,motherland than by anything else1 has fulfilled what it considered to be its duty and its honour with a devotion and a heroism unsurpassed4 ,it were impossible to stay and recount its many wonderful deeds4 ,a young officer said to me one day -- ,horrible as the whole thing is1 yet it almost seems worth while1 when you think of the splendid things done -- and done too in such a simple matter-of-fact way3 when you think of all the love and devotion poured out1 and the lives our men have given one for the sake of another4 ,great indeed is the spirit of such an army1 great its magnanimity1 its simplicity of mind1 its unself-consciousness1 its single concentration on its purpose4 ,yet perhaps the most surprising thing about our men is that they have done all this with so little hatred in their hearts for the enemy4 ,whatever the ,germans may have felt1 and whatever the ,french1 the ,britishers have just done their fighting in their own nonchalant way because they had to -- with scarcely a shadow of malice or revenge -- rather with that respect for a doughty opponent which always distinguishes the true fighter4 ,think of that quaint story 7,between ,the ,lines1 by ,boyd ,cable1 pp #ahh ff7 of the ,german ,burschen in their trenches1 singing with pious enthusiasm the ,song of ,hate 7probably commanded and compelled1 poor devils1 to sing it7 and our men for days secretly listening1 learning the words1 practicing the tune on their muffled1 mouth-organs2 till having got it all complete they one morning1 burst it forth in full chorus on the astonished ,teutons1 nor failed at the end to blaze out ,gott strafe ,england at the top of1 their voices as if they really meant it -- and then subsided into a roar of laughter4 ,they simply would not take the ,german ,hate seriously4 ,well1 what can an enemy do with such an army8 ,it would seem indeed to be invincible4 ,the other surprising thing about this ,army is 7but it is also in part true of the ,russians and others7 that the members of it not only bear so little malice in their heart of hearts against the enemy1 but that all the time they 7or nine-tenths of them7 are giving their life-blood1 for a ,country which in hardly any available or adequate sense can really be said to belong to them4 ,not one man of ours in ten1 probably not one in a hundred1 has any direct rights or interest in his native soil2 and the ,motherland has too often 7at any rate in the past7 turned out a stepmother who disowned him later when crippled in her service4 ,he is told that he is fighting for his country1 but he finds that his real privilege is to die at the foot of a ,trespass-board on some rich man's estate1 singing bravely to the last that ,britons never1 never shall be slaves6 ,he is told that he is defending his hearth and his home1 and to prove that that is so1 he is sent out on a far campaign to further some dubious scheme -- in ,mesopotamia6 ,i think we cannot refuse to say that the good temper and they single-heartedness and the single mindedness of the ,british soldier are beyond all praise4 ,but1 in another way1 how admirable and how great has the ,french soldier proved himself to be6 ,the passion of ,patriotism1 the sheer love of their own country 7in the case of the ,french1 more truly their own than in the case of the ,british7 has swept through ,france in a wave of devotion which consumed in its flame1 one may almost say1 the energies and the treasures of every household4 ,to protect their beautiful land1 their divine mistress1 from violation by the ,german hordes was a thing for which all men -- artists1 literary men and all -- were glad to die4 ,when at ,meaux the ,french army 7reorganized and reinforced7 broke through the ,german centre and fell upon ,von ,kluck's left flank 7his right being already threatened by the ,french ,sixth ,army71 they were surely not men who fought1 but spirits rather -- many of them almost ghosts1 white with the fatigues and privations of a long retreat2 but to save their beloved ,paris they faced the enemy with a fury that nothing could resist4 ,a miracle was wrought 7talk of ,angels at ,mons1 it was ,devils at ,meaux71 and ,germany in that moment was defeated -- even though it took two years more to make her acknowledge her defeat4 ,think of ,lieutenant ,pericard who in a trench full of corpses at ,bois-brule cried1 suddenly entranced1 in a loud voice1 ,debout les morts6 and in a moment1 as it were1 the souls of their dead comrades were around his men1 inspiring them to victory4 ,when again at ,verdun week after week and month after month the ,french army endured tine almost hourly mass-attacks of the enemy battalions and the deluge of their shells 7eight million shells1 it is estimated the ,germans threw in ten weeks71 it still1 though heavily punished1 stood solid1 and the whole of ,france stood solid behind it4 ,france never doubted the conclusion2 and the conclusion was never doubtful4 ,we have spoken of glory1' but the day of la gloire ' has departed4 ,france herself has ceased to speak of it -- and there can be no better proof than that1 of the change that has come over the minds of men 4 ,france has emerged from the ,war a changed nation4 ,the people who in #ahgj made ribald verses and sang cynical songs over the plight of their country are now no more1 and ,france emerges serious1 resolute1 to the great work which she has before her -- of building the great first ,democratic ,state of ,europe and becoming the corner-stone of the future ,european ,confederation4 ,and what shall we say of the ,german army8 7,in the moment and merely for the sake of brevity ,i leave the ,belgians1 ,russians1 ,italians and ,serbians aside47 ,when ,i think of the great ,german army now scattered over ,europe1 fighting along that immense line 7including the ,austrian portion7 of some #a1djj miles in extent2 when ,i think of this on the whole so wonderfully goodhearted1 genial1 sociable people1 these regiments of ,westphalians1 ,wurtemburgers1 ,saxons1 ,bavarians1 ,hungarians1 these men and boys from the fields and farms of ,posen and ,pomerania1 the forests of ,thuringia1 the vineyards of the ,rhine or the vegetable gardens of the ,palatinate1 these students from the ,universities and scholars from the ,technical ,schools2 plunged in this insane ,war1 fighting in very truth for they know not what1 and pouring out their life-blood1 like water in obedience to the long-prepared schemes of their rulers -- ,i am seized with an immense pity4 ,they have been told they are fighting to save their ,fatherland4 ,and as far as our argument is concerned it does not matter how falsely they have been instructed or what grain of actual truth there may be in the contention4 ,the point is that the vast majority of them believe this to be true2 and they too1 dear children1 are giving their lives for their hearths and homes -- they too are leading this hateful existence in trenches and mines1 called to it by what seems to them a good conscience1 and carried onward 7in company with those they have left at home7 in the mad millrace of public opinion4 ,however we may1 blame the ,german ,high ,command -- and certainly we must blame those in power1 who over such a long period deliberately prepared this war1 and at the last so suddenly launched it upon ,europe4 ,however we may blame the ,german ,high ,command1 we cannot refuse to acknowledge the really great qualities of their general ,army3 its extraordinary courage and devotion1 its versatility and resource4 ,as to its goodheartedness1 that is proved by the endless stories of spontaneous friendliness shown by the ,german troops even to their enemies1 the individual rapprochements on occasions1 the succour to the wounded1 the ,christmas songs and celebrations1 and by the fact of advances of this kind so often coming first from the ,german side4 ,as to its good sense1 that element certainly has not been wanting4 ,among the stories' above-mentioned as coming from the ,front is one which ,i have every reason to believe is true4 ,the ,saxons one day1 in their trenches thirty or forty yards away1 put up a blackboard on which was written3 ,the ,english are fools6 ,the board was of course peppered with bullets1 and went drown4 ,presently it reappeared with ,the ,french are fools6 written on it4 ,being duly peppered again it went down1 and came up with ,the ,russians are fools6 ,same treatment4 ,but when it1 or a similar board1 appeared for the fourth time1 lo6 the inscription was ,the ,austrians are fools62 and when it appeared for the fifth time1 ,the ,germans are fools62 and the sixth time1 ,we are all fools6 ,i don't think there could be much better sense than that4 ,and to think that the insane policy of a ,government or ,governments should bring about the wholesale slaughter of such mien as all these that ,i have described4 ,to think that the longer such a war goes on1 the less heroic and generous it becomes1 and the more dominated by hatred and revenge -- by the wish to score a military victory or the desire to secure mere political and commercial advantages4 ,to think that nations who consider themselves civilized should be thus acting3 so contrary to the natural laws and instincts of humanity that often in order for a bayonet charge men must be primed with liquor to the verge of intoxication 4 ,we need not go further4 ,of the three great nations primarily involved those indeed of which we can speak most confidently1 knowing them best -- it is intolerable to think they should thus mutilate and destroy each other4 ,all we can say is3 ,never again must this thing happen6 ,when one thinks of the whole dread ,coil and ,entanglement1 and1 what it is for1 the mind reels in despair4 ,when one thinks of the marvellous scientific ingenuity and skill1 directed in a kind of diabolic concentration on the one purpose of slaughter4 ,of the huge guns1 the #ab4e's1 weighing #dj tons apiece1 and boxed and rifled to the nicety of the thousandth part of an inch 7,i have watched them being made at ,sheffield74 ,of the larger #ae in4 guns1 with range of #ac or #ad miles1 so accurate that the shells thrown at that distance will deviate hardly a couple of yards to the right hand or the left of their line of fire 7and in the ,jutland battle the firing opened at nearly #aa miles74 ,of the still larger guns even now being constructed4 ,of the shells themselves varying from a few pounds to nearly1 a ton in weight1 and so delicately fashioned that the moment of their explosion can be positively timed to the tenth part of a second3 ,when one thinks of the ingenuity put into aeroplanes and airships1 and almost entirely with a view to the destruction of life2 ,of the automatic steering of submarine torpedoes by means of gyroscopes1 so that when deviated by any obstacle or accident from their set course they will actually return of themselves to that course again2 ,of the everlasting duel going on in any one country between armour plates and projectiles but of course always between the armour plates of one firm and the projectiles of another 7since obviously for any one firm to prove its own inferiority in either line would be bad business76 ,of the competition even now in progress between the ,russian universities for the invention of a new explosive or a new gas more devastating than any hitherto produced2 ,of the weighty ,advisory ,committee of scientific ,experts sitting permanently in ,britain for the discussion and handling of the technical problems of the ,war2 ,when one thinks of what a ,paradise all this ingenuity1 all this expenditure of labour and treasure1 might make of our mortal ,earth -- if it were only decently employed2 ,that ,great ,britain alone has already spent on the ,war enough to provide every family in the whole kingdom with a comfortable cottage and an acre of land2 ,when further one thinks of all the mass of human material there is1 such as we have already described -- of the very finest quality1 and fit to build the most splendid races and cities the sun ever shone upon -- and then that it is being used for these utterly senseless purposes2 ,how heart-rending the waste and the folly6 ,how disgusting the sin of those who are responsible6 ,but to-day surely the armies themselves of these three countries are beginning to see through the illusions which have been dangled before then so long by those in power -- the ,my-country -- right-or-wrong kind of ,patriotism which has so often been evoked only in order to serve the plots of private schemers2 ,they are surely beginning to see that the directing of ,state-policy and foreign relations must no longer be left in the hands of a few highborn diplomats 7mostly ignorant of the actual modern world amid which they live71 but must be subject to the severest scrutiny and surveillance by the people at large and their representatives2 ,they are beginning to see that if courage1 devotion to an ,idea1 love of the ,father- or ,mother-land1 ,fidelity of comrade to comrade1 ,efficiency1 daring in ,adventure1 exactness in ,organization1 and so forth1 are the qualities which in the past have made the profession of arms great and glorious1 it is these very qualities which will be demanded and evoked for all future time in the great free armies of ,industry4 ,for with the cessation of ,militarism as the leading principle of national life must inevitably come the liberation of ,industry -- else the last state of our societies will indeed be worse than the first4 ,truly there is nothing very exhilarating about ,industry as it has in modern times been conceived1 and one does not altogether wonder that all down the centuries the man with the sword has despised the man with the hoe1 since the latter has generally been little better than a slave4 ,but when once ,labour is freed -- or rather when once it frees itself -- from the thraldom1 of the old ,feudal system1 and finally from the fearful burden of modern ,capitalism -- when once it can lift its head and see the great constructive vision of the new society which awaits it -- then surely it will perceive that all the great qualities we have named as exhibited in the past in the old destructive ,warfare1 and now become the splendid heritage of the peoples of ,europe1 will be necessary and will have a field for their exercise in the beneficent constructive conquests of ,nature and the building up on ,earth of that great ,city of the ,sun which for so many ages has been the dream and inspiration of ,man4 ,and of the old mad ,warfare it will then say ,this odious and inhuman ,thing must never be again6 ,in conclusion1 and to look to the future3 ,i think we may see that the new conception of life will only come through the peeling off in the various nations of the old husks of the diplomatic1 military1 legal1 and commercial classes1 with their antiquated1 narrow-minded and profoundly4 irreligious and inhuman standards -- those husks which have so long restricted and strangulated the growing life within4 ,it will only come with the determination of the workers 7that is1 of everybody7 to produce things useful1 profitable1 and beautiful1 in free and rational co-operation -- things useful because deliberately made for use1 things profitable for all because not made for the gain of the few1 and things beautiful because of the joy and gladness wrought into their very production4 ,simultaneously with this peeling off1 of the ,old1 and disclosure of the ,new1 will of necessity appear -- indeed it is taking shape already the blossom of international solidarity and federation -- the common cause of ,humanity and of ,labour liberated over the world4 ,naturally such process will not mature all at once4 ,it may1 bit that the four ,western nations1 ,england1 ,france1 ,italy and ,belgium1 combining with some of the neutral ,states1 will constitute the first ,european ,federationor at any rate the nucleus of a ,federation destined1 as it expands to absorb within its borders ,germany herself 7of course when she shall have taken on her true republican form7 and the other ,states in due succession4 ,such ,federation when firmly consolidated might1 it is not unlikely1 still retain for a long period a military system1 of some kind1 if only for its own protection against outlying and non ,european dangers2 but that military system would be small and secondary4 ,it right reasonably be no more dominant or meddlesome than the military system of ,china has been during the last thousand years in comparison with the massive imperturbability of the great ,chinese ,empire itself4 ,meanwhile let us remember how important it is for the future of the world that each nation and people should be free to contribute its special quality and character to the whole2 nor be ridden-over roughshod by the others2 ,that each should contribute1 in ,trade or otherwise1 its special gifts or facilities2 and that the ,internationalism which already rules in labour affairs and in ,commerce and ,science and ,fashion and ,finance and ,philanthropy and ,literature and ,art and ,music1 should at last be recognized in ,politics4 ,let us further remember how important it is that every man and woman should insist on the rights of ,personality to preserve sacred his or her most intimate sense of selfness and duty the very1 essence of ,freedom4 ,though ,i do not1 for instance1 think that a refusal to fight under any condition or circumstance can reasonably be maintained to its logical conclusion1 and though ,i certainly would not engage myself to refuse to fight in any and every case4 ,still1 ,i do honour and respect the genuine conscientious objectors 7of whom there are great numbers7 very sincerely4 ,some of them may1 be narrow-minded and faddist 7as conscience often is71 but let us remember that the great things of ,history have been initiated by such folk4 ,it was they who barred and broke the gladiatorial games at ,rome2 it was they1 who1 steered the ,mayflower across the ,atlantic1 and started the great ,republic of the ,united ,states2 ,and it is they1 who are possibly sowing the seed a great ,movement which will spread all over ,europe1 and ultimately by opposing compulsory military service inaugurate a world-era of ,peace4 7,for certainly1 without ,conscription the ,continental ,powers would never have become involved in the present war7 ,let us recognize the right and the duty of each man to ponder these world-problems for himself3 to play his part and to make his own voice heard in the solution of them4 ,let us recognize the falsity of ,science divorced from the ,heart1 and begin to-day to create a political1 an economic1 and a material world which shall be the true and satisfying expression of the real human soul2 ,let us acknowledge even at the last that the ,war may have been a1 necessary evil to show us by contrast the way1 of deliverance2 ,let us render1 homage to those who have given their lives in it2 let us vow that their great sacrifice shall not be in vain1 but shall consecrate for us a new purpose and a new ideal2 ,let us believe that ,love1 not ,hatred1 is the power by which in the end the ,world will be saved2 ,and let us pray that a ,heroism equal to that1 shown to-day in the cause of ,destruction may urge us in the future towards a great and glorious ,constructive era in social life -- and inspire us with a new hope3 ,out of purgatory to build a paradise1 in which the ugliness1 vulgarity1 sordidness and cruelty of the present scheme of things will be repeated4 ,august 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