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



/, Side Of the One That Does Most Injury.
War is the last remnant of mans
mode of deciding disputes in the ami
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 other s
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 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 a set
Element 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 otfenses against what
they called their homo" 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 a 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 a chance to cut or stab or shoot
Mt 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 gratifed
an animal instinct of the primeval
time. Dueling, however, has disap-
peared here and in England. 1t
fiourishes still in the old barbarous,
absurd form on the continent
Disputes between nations, for OBJ /,
yious 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
heir mode of deciding differences of
opinion has always remained the
I'D animal one of doing as much
material injury as possible to the
,ther side, and there still fingers the
,elief that God is ON the side of the
me which does most injury; that
le counts up the number of killed
md wounded and decides that tho
me which has most killed and
Wounded is in the wrong During
var he is prayed to see that the
lumber of killed and wounded on
be other side may be, the larger,
nd after what is called a victory"
that is, the killing and wounding !
I a larger number of your enc
lies than they have managed to
III and wound ON your side people !
urry to church and sing hymns of ]