Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-05-24

UrlcS UO Luluk, uc Is OuS lIlS ~ AOA Sell
defense, but the cases in which anybody
defends himself with it are very rare.
1t is mostly devoted to killing the unof-
Tending, or making them keep still
while their pockets are being rifled. The
man who invented it has great deal to
answer for, as any one will see who re-
| fleets for a moment on the awful de-
structiOn of life which it has enabled
desperadoes in all parts of the world to
accomplish during the last thirty years
1t gave the ruffian the power which he
never had before of carrying five or six
shots in his pocket without exciting OBJ
servatiOn, and he has SO used it as great
| " to increase the difficulty of maintain
ing law and order in all civilized coun-
tries. The best elements Of society
have not profited by it at all. Its adj
vantage to the army or navy or police
has been very tritling, and there are
but few households whom it has ever
protected against attacks on either life
or property.
One of the most dangerous of the an
archical notions now afloat is the notion
that the oppressed, even when acting
singly, have just as good right to use
the means of destruction against their
enemies as organized Governments have:
that an Irishman who does not like the
way his country is governed is as much
justified in blowing up the Houses of
Parliament as the Prussians to lombard
Paris. But the reason why the use of
the weapons of war against life and
property is reserved by old-fashioned
moralists for established Governments
carrying on openly declared hostiltties,
is simply that it is for the interest of the
human race that the destruction of life
and property should not be undertaken
except in eases where large body of
persons. forming an organized society.
have after deliberatiOn agreed that it is
necessary or desirable, and guarantee
that the world shall have occasional in
terval> of peace.
The progress of civilization has been
marked from the beginning by restric-
tons on the right of making war. First,
every one could attack anybody he
pleased, just like the wild animals.
Then it was reserved for small parties
or families of savages under a chief. and
finally was reserved exclusively for the
societies called nations. When the tide
of civilization receded during the Mid
die Ages, the right of waging war again
became diflilsed. and fell into the hands
of every large landholder. To 90 out
and attack Il neighbor. and carry off his
cattle, became one of his every day
amusements. When the tide of civil
Zation again began to rise. the right of
attacking people again began to be re-
strictcd. In every century we find the
number of those allowed to exercise it
diminishing, until finally it has become
confined in practice to the great nations.
Even small nations now are rarely al
lowed to 90 to war, and. wE"n war
takes place, it is carried on by a million
of men on Il side, and is therefore rarely
undertaken unless very large body of
persons have agreed both that it is de-
SRA BILE and that it is likely to attain its
object.
This is certainly on the whole Il great
gain for humanity. 1t may crowd a
great deal of killing into short space
of time, but it gives long spaces of time
when everybody is sure that he will not
be killed, and will enjoy the fru' is OF
his labor. Moreover, it enlarges the
role of discussion in human affairs, and
nothing is SO important for the race as
this. Nothing does so much to educate
it, and make it reasonable; or, in other
words, to remove it from the animals,
whose unhappy fate it is not to know
how to persuade.
The Nihilist plan of allowing every
man to carry his own bomb, and ere
movc' such persons as he thinks s,l-
perfluous or injurious to the communi-
ty, would be return to the wild-ani-
NAL stage of human history. 1t would
assimilate man once more to the tiger,
and, of course, if generally adopted,
would make organized society impossi-
BILE. The Industrious, the energetic,
the upright would in every generation
be blown up by the idle and vicious,
and these would finally have to live
apart in caves or trunks of trees, would
forget how to make dynamite or even
gunpowder, and have to rely once
more, like their progen tors, on their
nails and teeth. and on clubs for the
promotion of their happiness. Y
Erening Post.