Brought to you By ND-Warez.info & WarezPoets.com

THREE LETTERS TO FRIENDS OF PEACE 109
worst enemies of civilization. There is a kind of compliance
which is a crime against humanity, though it passes for political
wisdom.
We cannot despair of humanity, since we are ourselves human
beings. And it is a comfort that there still exist individuals
like yourself, whom one knows to be alive and undismayed.
II.
To be quite frank, a declaration like the one before me in a
country which submits to conscription in peace-times seems to
me worthless. What you must fight for is liberation from universal
military service. Verily, the French nation has had to pay
heavily for the victory of 1918; for that victory has been largely
responsible for holding it down in the most degrading of all
form. of slavery.
Let your efforts in this .truggle be unceasing. You have a
mighty ally in the German reactionaries and militarists. If
France clings to universal military service, it will be impossible
in the long run to prevent its introduction into Germany. For
the demand of the Germans for equal rights will succeed in the
end; and then there will be two German military slaves to every
French one, which would certainly not be in the interests of
France.
Only if we succeed in abolishing compulsory service altogether
will it be possible to educate the youth in the spirit of
reconciliation, joy in life, and love toward all living creatures.
I believe that a refusal on conscientious grounds to serve in
the army when called up, if carried out by 50,000 men at the
same moment, would be irresistible. The individual can accomplish
little here, nor can one wish to see the best among us
devoted to destruction at tl,e hands of tl,e machinery behind
whim stand three great powers: stupidity, fear, and greed.
III.
The point with which you deal in your letter is one of prime
importance. The armament industry is indeed one of the