Is War Cureless? October 31, 1915

Dr. Stephen S. Wise, October 31, 1915
“I sometimes think that this attitude of mind is the most hurtful consequence of the war – this dependency that has struck dumb the moral and spiritual natures of men and that has made them insensible to the terrible wrongs committed in its name. We have become so hardened that we are scarcely stirred with the slightest emotion when we read of the slaughter of a thousand or two thousand men in some skirmish; we must read of hecatombs being slain to awaken our interest. We are not going to put an end to war merely by willing that there shall be no war. We have got to have a little more backbone and a little less wishbone.”
Q: Isn’t it true that all the teachings of Christianity and of the Jewish religion for the past thousand years have not been able to prevent war and that economic causes are really behind the war?
A: If there were true Christians in the world, and if my people were as true Jews as I want them to be, there would have been no war.”