Letter from London

The Pacifist Perversion

The pacifist frenzy that gripped multitudes of men and women throughout the country has subsided. To speak of “frenzy” may seem an exaggeration, for there has been little tumult and almost no violence. But a scrutiny of the press and of the hundreds of letters, selected from among many thousands that have poured into the editorial office of every leading newspaper, the wildly irresponsible editorial comments in the Liberal and Socialist dailies and weeklies, the innumerable ranting speeches made in Parliament and at public meetings, disclose such a state of overheated emotion, such a surrender to unreason, and such an abandonment of plain patriotism, that to use “frenzy” for this astonishing and disconcerting outburst seems appropriate.

FV

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F. A. Voigt

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The Pacifist Perversion

The pacifist frenzy that gripped multitudes of men and women throughout the country has subsided. To speak of “frenzy” may seem an exaggeration, for there has been little tumult and almost no violence. But a scrutiny of the press and of the hundreds of letters, selected from among many thousands that have poured into the editorial office of every leading newspaper, the wildly irresponsible editorial comments in the Liberal and Socialist dailies and weeklies, the innumerable ranting speeches made in Parliament and at public meetings, disclose such a state of overheated emotion, such a surrender to unreason, and such an abandonment of plain patriotism, that to use “frenzy” for this astonishing and disconcerting outburst seems appropriate.