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Show 308 This fundamental law of psychology is as true of communi- ties as: of individuals. it is as easily verified in the experiences of a nation as in those of a youth. No more surely does the blood spilled upon the pasture madden the bullocks until they gore one another to death than does the violent word and the initial blow put murder into the heart of the incipient mob. Every seed of violence breeds violence. "There is not a crime wrung upon the counters of this world llut takes its proper change out still in crime. l.et sinners look to it," 'u-i‘li 'r.' says Mrs. Erowning. llis life is most in jeopardy on our streets who carries a loaded pistol in his hip pocket; not only, as is amply proven by statistics, because the overwhelming probabilities are that when that pistol goes off it will go off at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and hit the wrong person, but because it is the provocation that will draw the other p .. ol out of that other side pocket that will go off at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and wound the wrong person. As with individuals, so with nations. Every cannon inspires another cannon: every shot belched forth from its unholy lips is an appeal to barbarism. a call of the brute that inspires the brutal. The roar of the cannon, like the surl' growl of a bull dog, sets all the kennel a snarling: I am but hinting at an unquestioned law of psychology ; a principle verified over and over again in the home, in the church and in the state; a principle established in the experience of every wise parent, teacher and ruler. \\"ith the retirement of the rod the dicipline oi the school has improved; by the reduction of capital offenses the morality of the community has been illereased. \l'lien stealing was punished by hanging. thefts were more numerous. \N'hen the lash was taken from the loreman's hand. the output of labor was increased. Only in the realms of national administration, in the socallcd "departments of war," is this principle defied and the countei‘»st:tteineiit glorified and applied with an ever increasing expenditure of capital. time, labor and intelligence. It is not true that the perfection of weapons and the increase 30‘) of armament has reduced the perplexities, the atrocities Or the devastations of "‘thl Quite the contrary is true. livery contribution of science to the arsenals of the world, from gunpowder to Maxim guns, has been inflammation to the imagination, aggrm vation to the nerves political, a debauchery of the sober reason and the sound judgment that has contributed to what, in the polite phrase of diplomacy, we call the "war spirit"~p;ttriotism, chivalry. loyalty to a flag or sensitireness to the honor of a country-which, in plainer English, in the unvarnishcd terms of ethics, is simply the spirit of barbarism, the brute in man forging to the front, the bully supplanting the philosopher: the pugilist crowding out the prophet, the captain supplanting the statesman. The appeal of the one is to might; that of the other is to right. The sword. however daintily chased, and however polished the Damascus blade may be, is but an extension of the fang, as the bayonet is a human appropriation of the claw and the musket a scientific refinement, an increased malignity of the club. Every increase of armament is a confession of moral weak» ness, an admission of faithlessne; in the right. a distrust of the potency of mind and the conquering power of love: consequently an appeal to might, which. however expressed in armored ships, smokeless powder and Krupp guns that can send their screeching messengers of death flying through fourteen miles of space, charged with death, terrible, unrelenting, undiseriinitiating death, all the way, is but the tiger in the man asserting itself over the angel. Anger, hatred, vengeance and the fell brood of harpies that follow in their wake are incubated in the hatching beds of fortresses or stowed away in the bunkers of battleships, and no burnishing of weapons. garlanding of masts, polishing of gun- wales or embellishing of uniforms with gold lace. brass buttons and ostrich plumes will make them anything other than implements of butchery. human butchery, butchery by order, bntehery all the same, and all the more inexcusable because entered upon by order of kings, presidents, parliaments and congresses. It is time to dispel the illusion of the war office. lt is time that presidents, kings, czars and kaisers should learn what every nursery maid and kindergartner already knows-that persuasion is better than intimidation: an ounce of argument is better than a pound of terror. One woman with a swill pail will lead twelve I‘lle mu. U |
