flames of Louvain take on the appearance of an aftermath of the Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

Will Nature take no heed of the violence inflicted by man upon her lesser children?

Will her inflexible laws not demand compensation for the death and torture of the countless millions of birds and beasts which man destroys to gratify his passions, his appetite, his vanity or his curiosity?

Twenty-five thousand school-children were “immunized” against diphtheria in one week recently in Philadelphia, and that means the torture of dozens of horses, and hundreds of guinea pigs; and these drives to “immunize” against this, that, and the other disease, with a serum heralded one day and discarded the next, are ever increasing in their intensity.

Vivisection is increasing day by day and our “civilization” is giving its millions of dollars to stimulate the cruel destruction of animal life. Can it be done without penalty, without reaction upon ourselves? Cancer, the most painful and horrible of diseases is rapidly increasing; are we sure we are not ourselves insuring its increase by our cruelty and selfishness?

Civilizations come and go; nations flourish and decay; and the destruction which they mete out to the conquered on the upward way is visited upon them in their decline. Attila and the Huns avenge the slaughter of the Nervii.

No civilization yet has been truly civilized, and none has long survived. If we should add together the weight of all the animals we kill, and estimate the total amount of anguish we inflict upon them, we might be appalled at the implication of our future indebtedness.

It is said that all the navies of the world might float in the blood that is shed each year in the slaughterhouses.

What compensation shall be made for that?