War and Peace

(Ed. Note- The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be with held.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

A reflection upon the truth of that cause embraced by the men who took part in the Great War, appeared in the columns of Monday's CRIMSON. Its ardent desire to foster our rapidly-developing modern attitude toward war confused somewhat irrationally that abstract attitude toward war with the very actual inspiration that carried these men forth. It is devoutly to be hoped that we shall all, in time, appreciate the futility of war even if we cannot appreciate its cruelty. But we may hope with almost equal fervor that our disdain for war itself be not transmuted into disdain for those who died on the battlefields of the past. No matter how we may regard the cause that they championed, we must acknowledge that they championed, we must acknowledge that they championed it with loyalty and courage. No matter how sincerely we reject the spirit that animated them, it is only generous to remember that they were equally sincere in following that spirit. No matter how misguided their ideal, as we see it, they supported their deal with valor and surrendered their lives to what they considered truth; hence, they are entitled to the name of hero and martyr. Heroism transcends the fleeting concepts of any single group or time. It must bespeak a noble answer to the call set forth in the past as well as in the present. That "those who died in 1914-18 were ... led to believe that they could attain a sweet and lasting peace through brutal and coarse killings" is a statement as brutal and coarse as the killings it vilifies. those men were not led to believe anything; they were called upon to surrender all their beliefs and unite in a cause for which many may have had little personal feeling. That they were able to submerge their individual beliefs and their personal emotions, and ride forth into obscurity and oblivion when the trumpet blew, should win the profoundest reverence of those of us to whom a more fortunate world allows the indulgence of individuality. Each generation establishes its own problems and its own duties. War was their problem; it was too late to undeclare it; no duty was left them but the answer of the summons. The abolition of war is our problem; but we can neither solve our problem nor perform our duty by mocking the heroes and the martyrs of the past, who knew how their problem had to be solved and went steadfastly to solve it."""" H. B. Jaffee '36