The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-09-13
ARBITRATION VS.. WAR.

ARBITRATION VS.. WAR.
The way 10 arbitrate is to arbitrate
The moment a man or nation re
serves the right to take justice in his
own hands on any particular occas
ion, arbitration becomes a farce.
An agreement to arbitrate involves
the surrender of the right to admin
lister justice or retribution personally
People have been slow to surrender
these rights. The duel died hard, and
in fact it is not dead in many coun
tries. If one feels the hand of the
pickpocket, hears the stealthy tread OF
the burglar or feels the singing blow
upon his face, the first impulse is to
fight, not alone for the sake of self
defense, but to resent the insult and
to administer speedy punishment upon
the offender.
Throughout the hot. blooded south it
was considered humanity to go to law
where personal insult was involved
and it has taken years to eradicate this
prejudice. Nevertheless the laW-abid-
ing citizen has for the most part had
it drilled into him that he must not
take justice into his own hands. The
offense is not alone against the indi-
vidual, but against the commonwealth
and the commonwealth has provided
the machinery of the courts that
Justice may be melted out. Every
court in the land is court of arbitra-
ton. The burglar enters your house,
you catch him in the act and turn
him over to the officers of the law. He
is taken before the court and there
the matter is arbitrated. That is, the
criminal is given opportunity for de-
tense, to bring forward extenuating
circumstances and to present all the
possible facts in his favor. Then the
jury and the Judge decide upon the
degree of his guilt and the proper pun
ishment This process involves the
surrender of the individual right, not
to defend ones goods, but to admin
lister justice. Every man has right
to shoot in self-defense, but the law
has decided many times that the dan
ger must be real and not imaginary
and that a mere taking of property
or even q personal insult of the gray
est character does not exonerate
man for killing, or attempting to kill,
the offender. AS we have said, 1t has
been difficult to teach mankind this
lesson. 1t is in some ways repulslve
to the brave, impulsive man. 1t is
against our idea of chivalry, which
was cultivated so sedulously during
what we now term the dark ages
Nevertheless the surrender on the
part of the law-abiding citizen, of the
right to administer punishment him
SELF is the very foundation stone OF
law and order
While the surrender Of this right has
become very generally recognized as
governing individuals, it's application
to governments and to nations has
been of tardy growth. The nation
has been held as a supreme entity. A
law unto itself Not responsible tc
any save it's own inhabitants. So
called personal honor" and nation
al honor" have been classed undel
entirely different; heads. Persona
honor could find proper redress in the
courts, but national! honor must be
defended by the nation personally ant
upon the field. of battle.
While many pirate of the beautie:
of peace, it was to be expected thai
when the actual test came host o.
objections would be raised. One could
hardly expect that Mr.. Roosevelt, him
self q fighting man, whose deares
glory is the battle of San Juan, would
enjoy the, prospect of universal peace
except asta' theory in dim perspect
i've. TIE STRENUOUS man who ha:
fought ALI his life does not enjoy the
prospect ;sof itamely laying down hi:
arms and letting justice take it:
course. 1t was very. difficult to teacf
the plainsman that he should lay aside
his trusty six.shooter and his bowie
knife and trust to the slower processes
of the law. He regarded it as unman
ly and unsafe. 1t was only by grad
ual process of civilization that the re
volver and the knife were thrown into
the worlds discard along with the