"Every military implement is designed to cut or crush, to wound and
kill. Nations at peace help one another with humanity's normal
tenderness of heart at times of pestilence, of famine, of disaster.
Nations at war exert their every ounce of strength to force upon their
adversaries hunger, destruction, and death. Starvation of the enemy
becomes a detail of what is considered good military strategy in war
time, just as world-embracing charity has become a characteristic of
all civilization during times of peace. Must we not admit flotillas
carrying grain to famine-stricken peoples to be more admirable than
fleets which carry death to lands in which prosperity might reign if
undisturbed by war?"
"But do you not admit that wars sometimes have helped the forces of
civilization in their conquest against barbarism?"
"War has not been the chief force of civilization against barbarism,"
Mr. Carnegie replied with emphasis. Then he continued more thoughtfully:
"That is one way of saying it. Another is, no effort of the forces of
civilization against barbarism is war in the true sense of the word.
"Such an armed effort is a part of the force pushing barbarism backward,
and therefore, in the last analysis, tends toward kindness and peace;
while, in the sense in which we use the word, war means the
retrogression of civilization into barbarism.
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