I e the wounds

rman Bethune

ancestral home, their first food. With the cry of a million years, they may remember

I tides, Other oceans and life being born of .

ea and sun. It may make them raise their tired - heads, drink deep and struggle back into life 11, It may do that. v .

d this one. Will he run along the road beside ule at another harvest, with cries of pleasure happiness? No, that one will never run again.

can you runwith one leg? What will he do?

, he’ll sit and watch other boys run. What he think? He’ll think what you and I would

. What’s the good of pity? Don’t pity him! would diminish his sacrifice. He did this for efence of ChinaTHelp him in your arms. Why, as light as a child! Yes, your child, my child. w beautiful the body is; how perfect its parts; what precision it moves; how obedient; proud strong; How terrible when torn. The little e of life sinks lower and lower, and, with a er, goes out. It goes out like 'a candle goes Quietly and gently. It makes its protest at ction, then submits. It has its say, then is l. '

y more? Four Japanese prisoners. Bring them i this community of pain, there are no enemies; away that blood-stained uniform. Stop that norrhage. Lay than beside the others. Why, ’re alike as brothers! Are these soldiers profes-

man-killers? No, these are amateurs-

: s. Workerman’s hands. Theseare workers- - iforrn. .. -

- more. Six o’clock in the morning. God, it’s in this room. Open the door. Over the distant, -blue mountains, a pale, faint line of light ars in the East. In an hour the sun will be I 0 bed and sleep. - t sleep will not come: What is the cause of cruelty, this stupidity? A milliOn workmen ‘ from Japan to kill or mutilate a million Chin- orkmen. Why should the Japanese worker

k his brother worker,-who is forced merely fend himself. Will the Japanese worker benefit 8 death of the Chinese? No, how can he gain? » in God’s name, who will gain? Who is psible for sending these Japanese workmen ls murderous mission? Who will profit from 0W was it possible to persuade the Japanese

an to attack the Chinese workman—his

_er in poverty; his companion in misery?

t possible that a few rich men, a small class e11, have persuaded a million poor men to

y and attempt to destroy, another million men " as they? 30 that the rich may be richer

Terrible thought! How did they‘persuade 'Poor men to come to China? By telling them

th? No, they would haver have come if they 0Wn the truth, Did they dare to tell these " en that the rich only wanted cheaper raw HallS, more markets and more profit? No, they 8111 that this brutal war was ‘the Destiny

' RaCe’, 'it was for the ‘Glory of the Emperor’, § for the ‘Honour of the State’, it was for , K1118 and Country’ '

39- False as Hell!

“gents of a Criminal war of aggressron, such 5’ must be leoke'd for like the agents of other

3' Slich as murder, among those who are ‘ to benefit from those crimes. Will the eighty

From THE REVIEW

million workers of Japan, the poor farmers, the unemployed industrial workers—Will they gain?

, In the entire history of Wars of Aggression; from

the Conguest of Mexico by Spain, the capture _of India by England, the rape of Ethiopia by Italy, have the workers of those ‘victorious’ countries ever been known to benefit? N 0, these never benefit by such wars. _

Does the Japanese workman benefit by the natural resources of even his own country, by the gold, the silver, the iron, the coal, the oil? Long

ago he ceased to possess that natural wealth. It .

belongs to the rich, the ruling class. The millions who work those mines live in poverty. so how is he likely to ,benefit by the armed robbery of the gold, silver, iron, coal and oil of China? Will not the rich owners of the one retain for their own

' profit the wealth of the other? Have they not_alwavs

done so?

It would seem inescapable that the militarists and the capitalists of Japan are the only class likely ,to gain by this mass murder, this authorized mad-

ness. That sanctified butcher; that ruling class, the true State stands accused.

Are wars of aggression, wars for the conquest of colonies, then just Big Business? Yes, it would

* seem so, however much the perpetrators of such

national crimes seek to hide their true purpose under the banners of high-sounding abstractions and ideals. Theymake war to capture markets by murder; raw materials by rape. They find it'cheaper to steal than to exchange; easier to butcher than

to buy; This is the secret of all wars. Profit. Busi-'

ness. Profit. Blood money. Behind all stands that terrible, implacable God

,of' Business and Blood, whose name is Profit.

Money, like an insatiable Moloch, demands its interest, its return, and will stop at nothing, not even the murder of millions, to sasfy its greed. Behind" the army stand the militarists. Behind the militarists stand finance capital and the capitalist. Brothers in blood; companions in crime. _V What do these enemies of the human race look

like? Do they wear on their foreh‘eadsva sign so '

that they may be told, shunned and condemned as criminals. No. On the contrary, they are the respectable ones. They are honoured. They call themselves, and are called, gentlemen. What a travesty of the name! Gentlemen! They are the pil- lars of the State, of the church, of society. They support private and public charity out of the excess of their wealth. They endow institutions. In their private lives they arekind-and considerate. They

_obey the law, their law, the'law of property. But

there is one sign by which these gentle gumrien can be told. Threaten a_ reduction in the profit of their money and the beast in them awakes with a snarl. They become as ruthless as savages, brutal

as madman, remorseless as executioners. Such ’

men as these must perish if the human race is to continue. There can be no permanent peace in the world while they 'livauch an organization of human society as permits them to exist must be abolished. . "

These men make the wounds. .

PAGE 5, CADRE, NOV. 24