Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/16

 wars can come to blight the world, to make of it a shambles of chaos and horrors such as ripped the world apart from 1914 till 1918, men cannot call themselves civilized. And what has all that carnage accomplished? What has the world gained? Today we sit back and wonder what it was all about. If it were a moral war that whitened the soul of humanity, it was a failure. If it were a purely commercial war to help along the destinies of huge corporations, it was a towering success.

Hung Long Tom, faithful servitor, guardian, dreamer, sat beside Scobee at the window in the attic of the great house and sighed softly to himself. At that moment he realized the futility of war, the futility of happiness, the futility of life. It is always the best people who bear the heaviest burdens. No use to say that God is testing their strength and courage for it is not true. God does not strike men down. If He exists at all He is a God of love and mercy. His presence is proclaimed by the wind sighing through willows, the blue wide stretch of the cool night sky, the perfume of