gave my solemn pledge to God, over and over again that I would
do what little I could to end the war-system. I felt it a solemn
obligation, a supreme duty to the boys who died and could no
longer speak, to give my life-long influence to stem this tide of
hate and anger which plunges whole peoples into murder, destruc-
tion and wholesale barbarism.

I feel that this volume is the keeping, in part, of that vow.
Poetry is recognized everywhere as an authentic vehicle for the
expression and dissemination of idealism. Indeed it is through
poetry preëminently that man's soul is moved to attempt his noblest
steps of progress. There is no need of apology, therefore, in behalf
of the noble line of poets here represented, poets of to-day and
yesterday, who voice the cry for peace. They are the vanguard
of another noble company of to-morrow who will make the dream
come true.

There are many glaring anomalies in our modern world but
none, perhaps, more so than the old militarism. The strength of
the grip of the war mania upon the peoples of the earth is well
demonstrated by the fact that its leading nations are still com-
mitted to a policy of armament. The majority of the ruling
classes still think too little in terms of the international spirit and
too much in terms of war. Against this prevailing mind-set, how-
ever, a new purpose is more and more taking the field. One
who has faith in the ultimate victory of reason cannot doubt that
this new spirit, born of the wedlock of humanism and rationalism,
must in the end triumph. The old militarism must go down
before it, because, of all the traditions with a contemporary vogue,
it is the most vulnerable and the most shameful.

One can bring many accusations against the psychology induced
by war and the fear of war, but none more final than that it is by
nature always hysterical and never rational. No item in the logic
of the apologists for war is, perhaps, more pitifully weak than the
claim, continually heard, that militarists are always pacifists. In a
book, filled to the brim with the usual militaristic lines of argu-
ment, called Defenseless America, Hudson Maxim ( inventor of
the Maxim gun, the Maxim silencer, and other pieces of army
ordnance) raises his voice against what he calls "Dangerous
Preachments," and declares that "the manufacturers of war mate-
rials are among the staunchest of peace men!"

A cartoon, very typical of many produced during the World
War, pictures a doughboy running forward savagely, with shining
bayonet poised for action while in the background stands a beauti-
ful figure of Peace with finger pointed toward the foe, evidently
urging the youth on. And the title of the cartoon is "The Peace-

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