The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-17
PEACE DAY IN
LOCAL PULPIT
Continued from Page one.)

The day is passing when decent men
dare justify the murder of COMPETE
ton with the sneering shibboleth,
Business is business; that is to say,
business is anything to win-arson of
o. rivals factory. larceny of public
franchises, bribery of legislatures,
freight rebates. and all the rest of
that. More and mere the question
pushed TO the front of affairs is, Is
this thing right?'' and business is seen
TO be service, for fair, equal and
open compensation.
Corruption still testers in the body
polite, and evil men are still exalted,
but more and more the props of law,
as well as those of public sentiment,
are falling from about the throne of
old iniquity. slavery, the lottery and
racetrack gambling are gone. The
beverage liquor traffic and the white
liave trade are going. Righteousness
stands in the marketplace, and has
the right of the floor in legislation.
the subject for this evening.
Meanwhile we fight. Part of us are
brutes and live by fighting. Part of
us are savages and have a certain
sense of tribal honesty. yet know no
law but force and no monitor but fear.
Some are barbarians, with a vague
sense of art and industry. Some are
partly civilized, and beginning to set
some little store by peace and order.
Some call themselves quite civilized,
and recognize some duty to competi-
tors and neutrals. But force is still
largely the basis Of justice, and super
stition, in a measure, the basis of re-
ligion.
Long after the beginning of the age
OF law, and after our German ances-
more barharians, but civilized and
even Christian. the Wager of Battle
held high place in the judicature.
This was an appeal to Providence, in
the belief that it would favor the duel
list who was in the right of the dis
pute, 1t applied not only to courts
martial but equally to courts of honor
and those of general jurisdiction. In
commercial trials the accused and the
accuser fought to a finish. In trials
OF title to land the claimants chose
champions who fought until one yield
ed or until the stars came out. Judg
ment was entered for the victor.
That was good English law. until
the middle of the eighteenth century
1t makes you smile to think of such
a crude and childish method of pro-
cedure when all the law you know
forbids the combat, save in necessary
defense of person. property and habi-
10 icSi ar
of felony.
L say force is still the basis of JUS
tice, because even the laws and the
courts that have gone far to abolish
violence require force to execute tn,
judgment. Such force is rarely used
but the theory is that it must exist
and be available. But the duel, as g
tribunal, exists only as a surviva
from barbaric times, and wilful fight
ing IS a business for criminals anG
sovereigns.
War is wholesale dueling to an ac.
compartment of murder. rape, robbery
and all the crimes; and it is only nat,
ural that it should linger on the stage
Of action long after private violence
has begun to be discountenanced, be
cause nations submit to no jurisdic
ton and own no outside power hu
the force of arms. But they are yield
ing, too, to centuries of teaching, an(
learning simple lessons from theil
subjects, just as school children TODAY
are educating their own parents abou
the liquor traffic.
War remains, and will remain fol
some years yet, but light is shinins
over it and through it, and it dies
slowly but certainly.
There is such a thing as the Law
of Nations, dating back to the begin
ming of the seventeenth century. wher
a clearheaded Dutch theologian wrot,
book that pricked the bubble of tn,
"honor'' of war. At that time war ac
knowledged no laws, nor claimed an,
morals. 1t recognized and employed
the assassination of rival rulers an,
generals. the poisoning of wells. tn,
massacre of prisoners, the pillage q
innocent homes, the torture of enc
mics, the ravishing of women, tn,
slaughter of children and the aged. nj
racy, the robbery and murder of men
trails, mutilation. lying, and, in short
every kind of conduct that was CON
sidered infamous as between individ
uals. AS late as the middle of tn,
nineteenth century the Duke of wa1
lington defended pillage and slausb
ter, and stood up for the doctrine tha-