PROMINENT MINISTER ASSAILS PACIFISTS,
At the annual winter meeting of Reserve officers at Laconia,
N.H. , a sermon was delivered at the Unitarian church, attended by
all the officers present. Rev. Otto E.Luerr, in a straight from
from-the-shoulder and sirring address, assailed the motives behind
the pacifist propaganda which is at the present time flooding the
country. Among his remarks were the following:
"The Army has always been associated with war. Indeed, you can
... dly have a war without an Army or a Navy. Result ;Army, war, de
struction and killing. Further result: Soldier, warrior, murderer.^"*
But nothing is further from the truth. I *m convinced that
real soldiers no more want war than ministers want it. No man who
has experienced the hells of war hankers for more. Yet the clergy
of America are spreading the pernicious propaganda that an Army is
a school for murderers.
.look at it again. Do you see the thirst for blood m
the faces of its officers and men? Do you shudder in their pres
ence? Do you fear for your life? What do you see?
The very essence of upstanding manhood. ken of high princi
ples# ken of clear thinking. Men with love in their hearts. So
much of it that they will die for its defense. If the bitter cup
may not pass. But not murderers; not aggressive warriors.
They are men two-fisted, red-blooded men, vertebrated, virile
men. That is why I !m glad to be associated with them. And I re
sent for them and for myself, the insidious, lying propaganda that
is being broadcast, by thousands of my colleagues regarding the ul
terior motives of men like these, to build up an Army for the sake
of starting another war in which to murder innocent and helpless
men, women and children.
And as they attack a program of national defense, which is the
only comprehensive attempt ever made by us to prevent a recurrence
of the pitiful weakness and shameful resultant less ii property
and. lives which attended our misunderslanding with Germany.
Here is a pamphlet sent to every Protestant minister in America.
It claims that the Array is militarizing our youth, breeding a desire
to kill, a sure cause of another war. Do you know where the mur
derers of the country come from? From the homes where exist no
such sense of honor as the Army instills. From homes where lack of
discipline breeds disrespect for all authority. From families of
wealth and position where the sons live on the laurels of the fathers
and rely on their money and influence to keep them out of jail.
We are the wealthiest nation on earth; a two-fold source of
danger to our security. First, envy of other lands; second, indif
ference and flaunting disregard for preliminary virtues among our
selves.
What we need is not less hut* more discipline in our schools,
colleges, classrooms, on the campus, in the dormitories, on the
street and in the home. What we need is not less, hut more military,
honor and courtesey in all relations of life. More sense of honor
that military training breeds in men. The trouble is not that we *
have too much military training, but we have not half enough. Make
fighters of youth?. Why, I had three years of it as a boy. I was
honored with the highest office my superiors were permitted to
grant and it did not make a fighter of me. I have not even enough
fight in me to fight with my church. But I did learn to keep my
appointments. I learned what it meant when others depended on me
to do something. I learned regular habits. I learned'to respect
authority and had a desire to do my bit whenever needed.
That is what military life did for me. It was not my.home."