The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-09-03
ST ATES AND WAR
By Councillor of Justice Joseph Kohler, of Berlin.

Inc Idea that there must be wars as
Ions as there are men and States is
as erroneous as the men and States is
held In former days that there must he
duelS as long as there are officers, and
fends as long as there are families
Formerly people believed in the
necessity OF feuds. they believed that
only with the sword were you able to
revenge your wounded pride and man
hood and that the families who did
not believe in feuds must lose their
Ideal strength. And how do we look
at this nowadays? To-day a murdered
mans wife will ask the authorities
TO pardon the murderer.
The wrong conclusion Is this: The
teud must continue TO exist as long as
there were families constituted and
organized as in olden days and as long
as people lived up to the old IA shioned
way OF thinking. Now there will al
ways continue to be families and A
feeling of family honor viii never
cease 10 exist. but the changed posi-
ton of the family and it's incorpora-
ton in the State must necessarily
completely change its way of asserting
a day or two, II is not the result of a
sudden effort, but of centuries of evo-
tuition giving the family position
which former generations had never
thought possible. Nowadays il is CON
sidered quite natural that the family
forms part OF the State, that IT leaves
the exercise of justice to the State and
that IT would be a serious crime against
the welfare of the community if family
should raise armed hand a gainst family
to-day we no longer consider IL dis
grace and dishonor to family when
II does not take the law into its oNn
hands to revenge injuries II may have
suffered but leaves it To the higher
authority OF the State 10 step in and
mctc out justice.
II SIp mil
luton which has made the families
part of the State, cannot possibly take
place when the question is about the
mutual relation Of the states. and that
here Is therefore, no hope that war
ana violence between the States Will
ever cease
This is a wrong conclusion. Who is
to-day able TO forteli how the relations
OF the states will evolve in centuries
to come? Have the people who sneak
OF the future OF the States even the
faintest ideas OF this? They point TO
the analoSies of history but we have
new history which goes far beyond
all former anaiosies. Wars there viii
always be as long as the States are
organized as they are now and stand
facing each other as enemies. I'm the
same way, that did the families in the
lays when feuds and vendettas were
tno order of the day. but All signs
seem TO show that this will not always
ne so and nobody can assert that the
states and their relations will always
remain as they arc. Everything seems
TO Indicate that In the life OF the
states, we are entering a new epoch
ara we may look forward to an evo-
luton of centuries where the relations
OF the states are not to be resula ted
as they were In the ninetecnth CEN
stury.
Just as formerly the families became
part of larger unit, the state, 80
the states win now become parts of
stu larger whole. and war will dis
appear as vendettas and family feuds
nave already disappeared in civilized
communities.
The idea OF federation OF states ma
we now know IL is not yet l5e years
old Just as our greatest technical in
Nenuons are not vet TWO centuries
old, but this idea shows up the direc-
tton Of tho new paths. Tho single
states which form part Of the United
states OF America, are States in every
sense of the word hut their relations
are quite different from those OF the
States of former days. and war between