164 THE CLASS STRUGGLE FORMING WAR PSYCHOSIS 165 its novel psychosis. Prof. Small in the September Journal of Sociology arrives at the same conclusion that the methods and aims of America in the World War are not selfish. Did not Wilson himself urge the people to fight without malice?
Yet if the learned gentlemen but read the press, the ways and means of creating a war psychosis would be found to be pretty much the old reliable ways of appealing to the Instincts and Sentiments with a suppression of Reason and the questioning spirit. Most powerful is the instinct so called of self preservation appealed to, the most ancient method of arousing action. Parasitism has raised in America the idea that the safety of America has been threatened. few illustrations are in order.
Said Wilson in his speech to congress. Their (the Germans. sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the union.
Congressman Caldwell in the Times of December 9th, says of the war. It will set back the development of Europe a century, but out of it will come progress and America will remain free. liberty is cheap at any price.
Secretary McAdoo in the Bankers Magazine of November, 1917, says, in an article conspicuous for its absence of the usual bombast about Democracy, that Germany threat to our commerce through boats would prevent America from selling her surplus products of the farm, the factory, and the mine to other nations of the world, and, this would result in suffering and want would stalk the land with injury to every man, woman and child in America.
Senator Reed warns. The German war engine will beat with such terrific power against our remaining allies that we will find it necessary to have an army upon the coasts of North America.
Roosevelt. We did not go to war to make democracy safe, we did go to war because we had a special grievance.
So that there is nothing novel about the war psychosis of the Americans. As to France, she was invaded, likewise Belgium, where the self preservation is evident. By what has been called Prestige Suggestion, the foremost men in America have hypnotized the masses into believing America was threatened, its very existence, at that. This appealed to several instincts and sentiments, some of them the most powerful. Masses over the face of the globe have had instilled in them the Illusion of Ownership, have called it, under which they react as though not only the language and culture were the common heritage of the whole people, but the very land which here per cent. of the people own to the extent of 50 per cent. This acquisition of theirs being threatened, the response was fairly good. The Church, the Press, the School, uniting in the suggestions as to the threat to the institutions in America, of the very lives of its peoples, created a relatively homogeneous mass.
Following the law of self interest even those opposed to the war eventually fall in line. How is that? By such a thing as conscription. Force alone never could sustain the Parasite. And yet by the use of coercion judiciously applied he accomplishes two things. He can fill his army and he can unite the people whose offspring fight. There is no wonder that the Germans back up the military on this ground. No one, no matter how radical, can suppress the wish that in a fight the other fellow will stop a bullet instead of his son or relative. Thus is secured harmony among the elements that if permitted free reign would seriously menace the conduct of war. Attention is focalized on nothing but the war. This excludes reforms, as in Germany or England or America. The most ultraradical will admit, once they are affected, that if we must have militarism let us have one in which the soldiers are well fed, well protected against disease, etc. This gives him things to think about. In Germany he thinks of nothing, nothing else. And little wonder. Baby killing Zeppelins again arouse moral indignation