The effects of war on a nation / James Peter Warbasse.

  • Warbasse, James Peter, 1866-1957.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The effects of war on a nation / James Peter Warbasse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [Reprint from THfi MEDICAL TIMES, May, 1914 THE EFFECTS OF WAR ON A NA James Peter Warbasse, M. D. Brooklyn, New York. The cause of war is to be found in three great social sins—race prejudice, patriotism, and commercial greed for the profits of trade. Race prejudice is based on an inhumane ignorance of our fellow men. Patriotism is fealty to the ruling political machinery of one’s country, the function of which is to protect a privileged, prop- erty-owning class, and to prevent an exploited working class from securing social justice. Between the two is the enlarged egotism which claims that our social duties are limited to family and country. The quest for the profits of trade in ever-widening markets is a necessary outcome of the economic system prevalent in all of the great war-like countries, because the wages paid to the producing class are not enough to permit them to buy back the products which they create; much of their product must, therefore, go to foreign markets if profits are to be produced for those who do not work. These are the causes of war; and the effects of war are to approve, confirm, and strengthen these three so- cial sins. As race prejudice, patriotism, and the competitive struggle for profits brutalize a nation, so does war bru- talize a nation. The purposeful killing and maiming of one’s fellow men has only a degrading effect. The statement, oft made, that war engenders the nobler qualities of self-sacrifice and bravery is false and at variance with the fundamental principles of human virtue. The soldier is apt to be a coward, who lacks the bravery and moral courage to stand up for his own liberty and a higher principle, and who falls a weak vic- tim to a mob impulse. He takes in his hand his instru- ment of death and goes forth to kill fathers, sons, and husbands, hoping to come off himself alive. This is not a noble impulse. He resigns himself to be led like a