Mount Kisco, N.Y., July 11, 1915.
_To the Editor of The New York Times:_
On Friday night at Carnegie Hall Miss Jane Addams stated that in the
present war, in order to get soldiers to charge with the bayonet, all
nations are forced first to make them drunk. I quote from THE TIMES
report:
In Germany they have a regular formula for it [she said]. In
England they use rum and the French resort to absinthe. In
other words, therefore, in the terrible bayonet charges they
speak of with dread, the men must be doped before they
start.
In this war the French or English soldier who has been killed in a
bayonet charge gave his life to protect his home and country. For his
supreme exit he had prepared himself by months of discipline. Through
the Winter in the trenches he has endured shells, disease, snow and
ice. For months he had been separated from his wife, children,
friends--all those he most loved. When the order to charge came it was
for them he gave his life, that against those who destroyed Belgium
they might preserve their home, might live to enjoy peace.
Miss Addams denies him the credit of his sacrifice. She strips him of
honor and courage. She tells his children, "Your father did not die
for France, or for England, or for you; he died because he was drunk."
In my opinion, since the war began, no statement had been so unworthy
or so untrue and ridiculous. The contempt it shows for the memory of
the dead is appalling; the credulity and ignorance it displays are
inconceivable.
Miss Addams does not know that even from France they have banished
absinthe. If she doubts that in this France had succeeded let her ask
for it. I asked for it, and each maitre d'hotel treated me as though I
had proposed we should assassinate General Joffre.
If Miss Addams does know that the French Government has banished
absinthe, then she is accusing it of openly receiving the
congratulations of the world for destroying the drug while secretly
using it to make fiends of the army. If what Miss Addams states is
true, then the French Government is rotten, French officers deserve
only court-martial, and French soldiers are cowards.
If we are to believe her, the Canadians at Ypres, the Australians in
the Dardanelles, the English and the French on the Aisne made no
supreme sacrifice, but were killed in a drunken brawl.
Miss Addams desires peace. So does every one else. But she will not
attain peace by misrepresentation. I have seen more of this war and
other wars than Miss Addams, and I know all war to be wicked,
wasteful, and unintelligent, and where Miss Addams can furnish one
argument in favor of peace I will furnish a hundred. But against this
insult, flung by a complacent and self-satisfied woman at men who gave
their lives for men, I protest. And I believe that with me are all
those women and men who respect courage and honor.