The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-10-09
SURVIVAL OF SAVAGERY


tertains no very exalted opinion of the
business of war. In recent number or
the outlook, discussing the lessons of
our late contest with Spain, he refers to
war generally in language so pictur-
esquely bold and independent as to leave
General Sherman's well-known defini-
ton of that word completely in the
shade. At this time, when the profess
sion of arms has not only conquered
Spanish fleets and armies, east and west,
nigh turned the heads of the whole
American nation, 1t even tempts the re-
public to abandon the safe and conserva-
tive policy of the founders of our national
constitution, and pursue, in foreign seas,
the ignis fatuus of colonial expansion
and imperialism. 1t is interesting at
such time to know what so distin-
guished citizen as Prof. Eliot thinks
about the business of the tented field
and all the pride, pomp and circum-
stance of glorious war
AS a man Of science. Prof. Eliot re-
CARDS war as the worst survival of saw
age life, still occasionally unavoidable,
because of other survivals of the savage
state, such as superstition, passion I'M
controlled and lust of wealth and power;
that it is the supreme savagery, the le-
galization of robbery and murdera the
assemblage of all cruelties, crimes and
horrors, and yet set up as an arbiter of
international justice. He recognizes the
fact that war makes a temporary and
local hell on earth, and that all its char
acteristic activities are destructive,
whereas all the normal activities of
free government should be constructive
and intended to promote the good of its
citizens and general civilization. He
quotes Charles Summers fierce indict-
ment against war, made in his Grafton
in 1S45, on the "True Grandeur of Ma
tions," and, excepting the sentence
"There can be no war that is not dis
honorable" indorses it. Sumner, re-
ferring to war; said in part:
This trade of barbarians, this
damnable profession, Is a part of the
war system sanctioned by international
law; that war itself Is hell, recognized,
legalized, established, organized by the
commonwealth of nations for the deter
mination of international questions.
Clearly General Sherman had obtained
his famous definition of the word war"
from Charles Summers Grafton of 1845
But Mr.. Eliot recognizes the occur
renee of occasional war as inevitable
in the present condition of the morals
of mankind, and, therefore, he says,
constant preparations for war are still
necessary, just as police courts, pris-
ons and scaffolds are still indispensable
to social order and individual freedom
states. But he scouts the idea, more or
less entertained by priori social phil
osophers, that the virtues bred and the
habits established in war make war well
come as a renovator of society, which,
during peace tends to corruption, lux
ury and enfeebling vices, and tersely
says:
The warlike virtues are those of the
hunter, and war Is a chase, with man
the prey, but as man rises in the scale
of civilization he is less and less the
nomad and the hunter.
Recognizing occasional existence Of
war, he claims that no nation can now
succeed in war which has not developed
In peace a great variety of mechanical,
chemical and biological arts, and that
in the prosecution of war, when it comes
to the pinch, the source of victory lies
in the personal initiative of each indi-
vidual commander, and even in each
private sailor or soldier. This is a gen.
tie hint to the administration that it's
interference in the management of the
late war has not been lost to public
censure.
On the whole, Prof. Eliot's paper is
both wise and timely. The country.
slightly intoxicated with the wine of
militarism, needed to be reminded of
the utter barbarism of war, and that in
pursuing the arts of peace and conserv-
ing the health and morals and industrial
and scientific activities of civilized So
ciety it is pursuing the most compre-
hensive methods in preparing for war
when war became inevitable.
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WOMAN SUFFRAGE