Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/200

154 men and women communicating itself to and seizing and paralysing the brains of the rulers, soldiers and diplomats of the countries now at war and making them helpless which has brought on this terrible war. Thus we see, it was not, as Professor Dickinson says, the rulers, soldiers and diplomats, who have conducted and led the plain men and women of Europe into this catastrophe, but it was the plain men and women,—the selfishness, the cowardice and at the last moment, the funk, the panic of the plain men and women who have driven and pushed the poor helpless rulers, soldiers and diplomats of Europe into this catastrophe,—into this hell of a war. Indeed the tragic hopelessness of the situation now in Europe I want to say here, lies in the abject, pitiful, pitiable helplessneshelplessness [sic] of the actual rulers, soldiers and diplomats of the countries now at war at the present moment.

It is evident therefore from what I have shown in the above, that if there is to be peace in Europe now and in the future, the first thing to be done is not, as Professor Dickinson says, to bring or call in, but to remove and keep out the plain men and women who, when in a crowd, are so selfish and cowardly; who are so liable to panic whenever the question of peace and war arises. In other words, if there is to be peace in Europe, the first thing to be done, it seems to me, is to protect the rulers, soldiers and diplomats from the plain men and women; to protect them from the mob,—the panic of the crowd of plain men and women which makes them helpless. In fact, not to speak of