Jack London
Overland Monthly/May, 1917
I believe intensely in the pro-Ally side of the war. I believe that the foundation of civilization rests on the pledge, the agreement, and the contract. I believe that the present war is being fought out to determine whether or not men in the future may continue in a civilized way to depend upon the word, the pledge, the agreement and the contract.
As regards a few million terrible deaths, there is not so much of the terrible about such a quantity of deaths as there is about the quantity of deaths that occur in peace times in all countries of the world, and that has occurred in war times in the past.
Civilization at the present time is going through a Pentecostal cleansing that can only result in good for humankind.
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