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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, February 08, 1917, LAST EDITION, Image 6

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Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-02-08/ed-1/seq-6/

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COCHRAN'S COMMENT
WAR AND PEACE. Yes, war is
hell. But t,e peace of a rich, fat,
luxurious country is hell, too. And
there is room forargument as to
which hell is the least desirable.
After all it's largely a matter of how
you want to live and die. The peace
we've been having recently has been
a hellish peace. Prosperity hasn't
brought more happiness, but rather
more degenerating dissipation and
imaginary pleasure. And it wasn't
passed around. Everything the peo
ple consume has been boosted in
price, but not the ability of the wage
earners to buy. Yes, there have been
some wage increases, but they didn't
keep pace with the Increased price
of food and clothing. Those who
profited most by our war-made pros
perity were mainly the ones who had
more than they needed anyhow. And
we were becoming a nation of pif
flers, meddling busybodies and long
nosed reformers of other people.
Even chanty had become organized
graft, with schools to teach college
graduates how to beg respectably.
Right here in Chicago we have an
army of respectable grafters who beg
money from the rich to pay the ex
pense of their meddling and playing
vith the lives of the poor. If a man
or woman can't think of any easier
way of making a living he or she can
start a crusade against cigarettes or
something else and proceed to assess
Ihe rich for salary and expense
money. If war would turn all the
female grafters into red cross nurses
and the male grafters into soldiers,
I think the country would be better
off, even though some of them were
killed. One of the chief troubles
about war is that it isn't properly or
ganized. If it were, then we could
pick out the ones to be killed and
war wouldn't be such an undesirable
helL On the contrary, it might serve
a useful purpose. We could put the
pifflers in the front ranks.
Eyery man who talksagainstjgar
isn't really against it Marty of them,
have a secret hankering for it It
may be they would prefer taking
their chances of a quick death to go
ing up against a sure-thing lingering
death.
Oh, yes, it's horrible this maim
ing and killing of brother by brother.
But we do that in peace as well as
in war. And there's no romance or
excitement in being killed by inches
by tuberculosis or occupational dis
eases in our marvelous industries. A
man gets some run for his money in
the war trenches, but none at all in
the Gary steel mills and darned little
at the Chicago stockyards. And the
women and children suffer just the
same in war as in peace.
I'd rather read about the noted
women of England, France and Ger
many sacrificing their jewels and
nursing wounded soldiers than read
the sickening slush in our local pa
pers about the daily gluttony, danc
ing and dressing of the piffling wives
and daughters of our rich bankers,
butchers, merchants and manufac
turers. If war will turn our silly so
cial debutantes into street car con
ductors, red cross nurses, chauffeurs
or street cleaners, I think there
would be. some chance for them to
become real women.
And it's in 'em There's some real
womanhood in our society fools, but
fthe life they lead gives it no chance
to crop out Adversity would do more
for them than prosperity. If you
want to know who I mean read the
society' columns of the Chicago pa
pers. You'll find there the women I
consider of least value in Chicago to
humanity. There are exceptions, of -course.
There are some who would
like to break out, but don't know
how. They don't know where to
break to. I'd like to see some of
them go to war.
I'm giving you this other side of
war in order to make you think
about how purposeless our life is in
peace and exclusive prosperity.
1 We're jiot setting anxwaere. Wa
- - ,-ji

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