SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited by Deborah Madsen):

This short pamphlet represents a very important intersectional intervention in the debate concerning the relation between diet, education, and a wide range of social justice issues. Smith begins by identifying general health as the most important aspect of educational reform. When physical health is established then “the salvation of the soul be assured, and peace possible on this earth” (3). Thus, physical health across all domains of society is a necessary precondition for peace. Smith attrinbutes to settler colonialism the prevalence of violence in the US. Dominated by “[t]he war spirit” (3), the "Old World" brought this attitude of aggression to the New World, as “with the Bible in one hand and the murderous musket in the other, the settlement of colonies began” and, ever since, “has never been in a condition of peace” (4). Smith includes animals and the environment among the victims of human violence:

Centuries of warfare across the ocean had saturated the earth with the flesh and blood of millions of men and animals slain. Upon this soil the people moved and lived; their food was grown upon the death-laden earth, and they consumed it. The streams of water became polluted. The vapors rising from the earth, and mingling with the air of heaven, were poisoned with the anguish of the dead and dying millions, and the weeping and sorrowing despair of those who mourned their slain (4).

War and violence are like a contagious disease. During the American Civil War, “[a]nimal and human lives that we could not restore fell like sheaves of wheat before the reaper, amid the booming of cannon and smoke of battle. Our earth was again saturated with the blood of hosts of stalwart men in their prime, of youth in the glory of vigorous manhood; to say nothing of the mental crucifixion of those who gave birth to the slain, and of the war spirit developing in embryo” (5). This is “the outcome of false education” (5), combined with "improper feeding of adulterated, poisoned foods and drinks; by furnishing our infants with military toys and teaching them infantile war tactics; by delighting them with pictures and stories of brave soldiers, until, as they grow older, to own a rifle or carry a revolver is the height of their ambition. We teach them to fish, hunt and trap game, and what has given such an impetus to cruelty as these teachings? (7)

Smith condemns the militarization of society, displayed by the annual 4th of July festivities, memorials, remembrance days, parades, and military education centers (7). “[I]t is quite time,” she writes, “that we gave our attention to producing heroes that will better illustrate the true, humane civilization of an enlightened humanity” (8). She then calls upon the many activists working towards diverse social and educational reforms to join the work towards pacifism. Pacifism and humane values extend well beyond the human realm:

How can these humane teachers reconcile extreme kindness to every living thing, and after the fashion of savages decorate their homes with the clothing, and themselves with the stolen wardrobes of murdered animals and birds they have pledged themselves to humanely treat and protect! Again, how can they consistently teach and practice gentleness and loving care to all sentient life, and then Judas-like betray myriads of animals into the hands of murderers, with whom they would not associate, but to whom they gladly pay the “thirty pieces of silver” because they are too refined and sensitive to do this deadly work themselves. How can they consistently invite these millions of youth to partake of the deliberately murdered and dissected bodies of the pets and friends so tenderly cared for. This is a huge pile of sand upon which these humane and Christian structures rest, countenancing a method of deception and cheating practised upon our animal friends and companions on the most gigantic scale; and tolerated, compelled to exist, not from necessity, but because this Christian and humane world demands it. It is a relic of a barbarous age, handed down to us until education has made it so much a habit that we take no thought concerning it. But it is one of the most vital questions of the hour, and upon its solution depends peace or war, and the adjustment of a thousand other things that agitate the world of thought in this progressive era. Will not these powerful organizations speak the word that shall spare the lives of millions of beautiful songsters that are earning their own living, and of the animals that are becoming extinct, and thus educate this brutalizing fashion out of sigh? (10-11).

Diet is central through “the effect of food upon the character of a people” (11). The habitual recourse to “an excess of spices and seasonings, accentuated with dead flesh, putrid blood and animal fats, made intoxicating with pungent extracts and alcoholic fire-brands, and washed down with hot, stimulating drinks, rendered more necessary by the excessive use of tobacco, opium, and other poisons,” is “the greatest factor that leads to strikes, anarchy, immorality, intemperance, war and cruelty of every kind” (11). If vivisection is rightly called the worst thing in the world, Smith writes, then killing animals for food can be “fitly designated its twin brother” (12). The abbatoir, factory farming, and modern bakeries are disease-inflicting, immoral abominations. Given the wide-reaching consequences of such habits and institutions, ethical veganism is the only solution, for animal welfare and social reform in general, including universal peace:

Vegetarians are numbered in the thousands in this and the European countries. They are intelligent and alive to all reforms. Their health and power of endurance surpass that of flesh eaters. Epidemics, contagions and deadly microbes have no terrors for them; rarely can one insane be found among them; not an inebriate disgraces their name, for they have been reformed from principle; tobacco, opium and their kindred are unwelcome guests, and a patient search would, doubtless, fail to discover a criminal in their ranks (12).

In a vegan world, “cruelty would be a thing of the past and armies and navies cease to be” (13). Currently, “the seed of human life is diseased, poisoned at its fountain head, grown in the hot-beds of sensual luxury, or nourished in ignorance, poverty and degradation of the lowest type” (13). It is necessary to “purify and perfect the soil that the seed from which it is grown is sound in every part” (14) and this can only be achieved by “secur[ing] more perfect and healthful bodies for these children” (14). Society must “close the door to all dead flesh” and “wage a war of extermination that shall banish poisons, and close the abbatoir” (15).