The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-07-31
THE ABsuRDiTY or WAR


War is the last remnant Of mans
mode of deciding disputes in the an
NAL or savage state. AS soon as he
started on the road to civilization
he set up judges of courts to settle
controversies. Before that, when
two men differed about anything,
they tore or mutilated each others
bodies, and it was tacitly agreed
that the man who was most mutt
lated, If not killed, should give way
But he abode by the decisions OF
courts very reluctantly. The hard
est battle of the reformers of the
race was to get him to submit to the
judges. He always preferred in his
heart some kind of mutilation of his
adversary's body, and in order to
give a certain dignity to this mode
of settling quarrels he got up the
theory that God presided over it
and always gave the victory to the
man who was in the right. In Eng
land this notion lasted in the trial
by battle, or wager of battle, al
most down to our own time. 1t was
held that the deity was on the side
of the man who gave most cuts and
stabs.
When the wager of battle as set
tlement of disputes of any kind be-
came too absurd, the turbulent
classes were driven into starting
the duel. They felt that there must
be some mode reserved of getting at
an adversary's body with some
weapon So they established the
rule that all offenses against what
they called their honor that is,
their sense of personal dignity
must be avenged by cutting, stab
bing or shooting, and that each man
must decide when his honor was
injured and when cutting, stabbing
or shooting was necessary. This
was very cunning arrangement,
for if it were left to other people to
say when your "honor" was injur-
ed you might never, or very rarely,
get chance to cut or stab or shoot
at all, because they might say your
honor was not injured. But there
was even a better device than this;
for it was arranged that the man
who you said had injured your hon
or could not deny it or apologize
without disgrace. He was held
bound, no matter how trifing the
injury, to give you chance to cut
him or stab him and to do his best
to cut or stab you. In what manner
this mended your honor was never
explained. To all outward appear
ance, after the theory Of the interest
of the deity in the matter had died
out, your honor remained after the
fight exactly what it was before the
fight. The cutting and stabbing
had neither proved nor disproved
anything. 1t had simply gratified
an animal instinct of the primeval
time. Dueling, however. has disap-
peared here and in England. 1t
flourishes still in the old barbarous,
absurd form on the continent.
Disputes between nations, for OBJ
vious reasons, have not come as rap
idly under human methods Of de-
cision as disputes between individ-
uals. Nations have never agreed to
have judges and arguments as indi-
viduals have. The result is that
their mode Of deciding differences Of
opinion has always remained the
old animal one of doing as much
material injury as possible to the
other side, and there still fingers the
belief that God is on the side of the
one which does most injury; that
he counts up the number of killed
and wounded and decides that tho
one which has most killed and
wounded is in the wrong. During
war he is prayed to see that the
number of killed and wounded on
the other side may be the larger,
and after what is called victory
that is, the killing and woundine
of a larger number of your enc
mics than they have managed to
kill and wound on your side-people
hurry to church and sing hymns Of
thanks. This belief is very strong
still in our day, and the enemy's