Pacifists and Ultra Pacifists.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Fearlessness in voicing one's opinion among undergraduates ought always to be encouraged. In this regard, if in no other, your editorial of March 15, on Summer Military Camps, deserves unmodified praise.

One of the assumptions on which you say the arguments in favor of these camps are based is that "adequate armament" is itself the best guarantee for peace. Has not this been proved in the case of Switzerland during the present war? That country by means of a military system, which many of our experts advise for adoption here, has compelled both France and Germany to respect her neutrality for the past eight months. To see what her condition might be today without a well-organized militia, one only has to look at Belgium. Geographical conditions have aided her, but those alone would not have stopped a stronger power from invading during the past months.

The majority of undergraduates are pacifists in the true sense of the word, because a pacifist is one who bends every effort for the maintenance of peace by means best suited to the time and place in which he lives. A great difference exists between such people and those ultra-pacifists who choose extreme means unsuited to the present day. Since the government has failed to initiate any adequate movement for the proper defence of our country, is it not the logical course for a true pacifist to try to correct this deficiency by gaining a certain amount of needed training at a military camp? Surely we have not reached that longed for state of civilization where national differences are settled without bloodshed Therefore, until such a time comes, should we not combat war clouds and war itself rather with a well sharpened weapon of self-preparedness than with some untried instrument of the future. G. B. BLAINE '17.