It is easy to be seen how this principle of
conscription could be applied to infinitely nobler ends--to the building
up of a beautiful civilization--and might make the country adopting it
in less than half a century as beautiful as ancient Attica or majestic
as ancient Egypt. While other nations take part of the life of young
men for instruction in war, why should not the State in Ireland, more
nobly inspired, ask of its young men that they should give equally of
their lives to the State, not for the destruction of life, but for the
conservation of life? This service might be asked from all--high and
low, well and humbly born--except from those who can plead the reasons
which exempt people abroad from military service. As things stand
today, if the State undertakes any public work, it does it more
expensively by far than it would be if undertaken by private enterprise.
Every person puts up prices for the State or for municipalities. Labor,
land, and materials are all charged at the highest possible rates,
whereas if there was any really high conception of citizenship and of
the functions of the State, the citizens would agree so that works of
public utility, or those which conspired to add to national dignity,
should be done at least cost to the community.
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