St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-02-26

human race and no one Is now ieft,
since 1860, to lift his voice for its ex-.
istence. The owning of man by man
is gone, and soon other indirect forms
of industrial slavery will go with 1t.
Some time ago we were in Nurem-
berg. We climbed the hill to the old
castle. and there we were shown
through the great tower where all the
torture machines are preserved. We
saw the roasting pans, the racks for
stretching and crushing bones, the
other instruments too horrible TO
mention, along with the iron virgin.
who once embraced hundreds of mis-
cradle creatures in her spiked arms
And the awful thing was not that men
practised this torture, but that they
enjoyed it and fiocked to see it. But
one day prophet arose in Nurem-
berg and said: This torture is hor-
rible, utterly inhuman, against all the
sweet mercy and pity of Jesus Christ,
Unworthy of our civilization. 1t must
STOP When he had spoken 1t was
tie good people who discouraged him.
They said: Yes, 1t Is inhuman and
un-Christian, but you cannot stop it.
People have always tortured, there
fore they always will. 1t is part of the
order of civilization, because it has
always been. You cannot change"
Needless to say, it was stopped in all
civilized countries in 100 years, and
where once the whole city loved 1t.
not one but who would shudder at ii
now. You can change human nature
completely.
One of the last great barbarities,
most inhuman of all, a pagan institu-
tion to linger on in our Christian CIV
ilization, is war. The prophetic souls
know that it Is doomed and must go,
because it is an anachronism in Chris.
tianity, and because the forces are
now at work before which it needs
must fall. But the one thing that pre-
vents its going in a generation is this
obsession of good people, that you
cannot change human nature. The
church alone could stop wars to-mor-
row did it believe it's own Gospel had
po"CI " w Wudt II Cld1Il1S " SlOp anu
did it dare believe that human nature
could be SO changed as to see the rea-
sonableness of Christian settlement of
national disputes as already it settles
individual differences 1t has been
changed to do that. Once all men set
tied personal disputes with fists. That
passed, and the duel came That has
gone, and we have the courts. More
and more private quarrels are now adj
Indicated, before they even reach the
courts, by diplomacy This evolution
has gone on side by side with all this
absurd talk of not being able to
change human nature. And the
change from wars as the method of
adjudication between groups Of peo-
pie to international courts is in this
inevitable evolution; but it limps and
halts because good people cling to this
outgrown obsessions: You cannot
change human nature. Wars have al
ways been, therefore they must al.
ways be. We are writing this edi-
torial to call the attention of these
good people to the effect that this OBJ
session will prove false here as it has
everywhere. You can do away with
war soon because you can change hui
man nature. The earth is full of the
signs that human nature is changing
very fast in this regard. The calendar
of 1909 printed in our last two issues
is only slight indication of what Is
going on in the mind of the world.
Read it carefully, and remember that
so years ago one could not have writ
ten one. World unity, international
peace, world federation, Hague courts,
arbitration treaties, brotherhood OF
man-these are the growing words
everywhere. They betoken a change
coming over human nature. Link your
self up to it and hasten the transfer
nation with your Christian faith. The
change of human nature is easy to a
Christianity really believed. The
Christian Work and Evangelist.