Goldstein Hits Armies, War Before Senate

Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein, of Free Synagogue, chairman of the executive committee of the War Resisters League of America in a statement which he presented at the hearing of the judiciary committee of the Senate yesterday, asserted that “only by withdrawing man power from the service of the government.”

The speaker warned against the “menace of militarism” which he said is “greater” than it was twenty years ago.

“In spite of every effort to reduce armaments and to build up the processes and machinery of peace,” continued Rabbi Goldstein, “the nations in 1934 are more heavily armed and more dangerously weaponed than they were in 1914. The governments of Asia, North and South America are spending this year more than five billions of dollars in maintaining and developing a war machine that can no longer defend their boundaries and that would bring only devastation and destruction to the earth. We must either end war or suffer another catastrophe that may end civilization itself.”

“There is only one way in which we can end war finally and forever. Of one thing we must be convinced, war can never end war. If we sow the dragon’s teeth we must expect to reap a harvest of disaster and death. War, however. cannot be fought without men. In spite of the decreasing importance of the army and the power of battleships, and the increasing importance of aeroplanes and chemical warfare service, men are still needed to invent and manage and control these instruments of destruction. As long as men are willing to fight, governments and those who control governments, will use them in the prosecution of the war method of settling disputes. The only way in which we can end war is to withdraw the man power from the service of the governments. Wars will cease only when men refuse to fight. The War Resisters of America are so firmly convinced that this is the one way in which to end war that we hereby serve notice upon the government of the United States that the members of the War Resisters League of America refuse to have any part whatever in war, civil or international, or the preparation therefore.”