The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-06-29

against the bark sides of the
lodges"
What has a modern prize fight TO-
do with that scene in the wild North
American forest two hundred years
ago? Everything to do with it.
Those Seneca Indians wouldn't
sell their prisoner because they
wanted the happiness of torturing
him. They wanted 10 see him
bleed. They wanted 10 see how
much he could stand They want
wanted TO know how game he
was. The old men and the women
and children looked on, while the
young braves exhausted their
ingenuity in horrible cruelty.
What is the long struggle of hu-
manity, with the teachings of its
various religions, but one long
effort TO substitute justice, broth
erly love, kindness and law for bru-
tality?
What can be more irreligious or
shocking than the argument that
any question can be properly solv-
ed with blow in the face?
What is the task of race that
has come up from universal canni-
ballsm to our comparative stage OF
balism? Is that task the develop
ment OF the spirit or of the body.
or of brute force?
Could there be anything more
idiotic than the father who on Sun
day solemnly reads to his child the
story OF Christ, who turned the 9th
er cheek, and on Monday says to
the same child, IF Willie Jones
does that again. hit him in the
noSe?"
1t ought not to be necessary To
o1fer 10 any man an argument
against so-called sport" that is
brutal, degrading, always accompan-
led by dishonesty, vice and disease.
Yet there are those who defend il.
calling II manly, just as the medi-
cine man OF the Senecas would prob
ably have defended the fortune of
the Young warrior.
What is it that keeps fighting
alive? Fighting is kept alive by
lighting The instinct is kept alive
by fighting talk, by admiration for
ilShung, by encouragement of fight
ing. What the prize fight, the fist
tight the personal encounter. is to
the individual what war is to the
nation. You cannot destroy war in
a nation while there is brutality
and Fighting in the individual. Is
not lighting, war the most destruc-
tive and the most expensive of
all the curses of mankind?
DO you know what wars, past
and to come, mean--what il cost
the country last year? Five hun
dred million dollars!
Every year for pensions-rewards
for those that were compelled to
1lght in the past-and for the navy
and army kept ready for future
! tights, the people of this country
| alone are taxed five hundred mil
lion dollars a year.
Think of the total, six thousand
millions of dollars, spent in Amer
lea already on war on our army and
navy. An expenditure of five hun
dred millions a year now, and eX-
penditure constantly to increase un
VII national bankruptcy shall call a
halt
Five thousand millions of dollars
at least we shall spend for war in
the next ten years.
De you know what .ha' means
, vice every year the uatioH could
| Lulld Tie Panama canal with the
| money that would be saved hut fur
the cnlse of war.
With the men and the money
| wasted on war, roads could be built
| throughout the country every year.
| mat vast sum thrown away, that
great amount of labor wasted, The
skill, intelligence and loyalty of Of
flcers and engineers and soldiers
would irrigate the deserts, reclaim
the swamp lands, give homes, happi-
ness and wealth to millions.
AS the nation spends money Law
lshly and wrecklessly for wars past,
Tor equipment, for possible war in
the future, so you see the indi-
Vldual spending recklessly for the
fierce pleasures of brutal fighting.
The man who paid fifty dollars
TO see negro fight a white man
would most probably have refused
five dollars TO his own brother.
The fighting spirit must cease,
be taken out of the individual; the
love of brutality must die, by lack
Of qualification.
Neither the animal body nor the
animal craving can live unless il
be starved to death by the lack of
brutal 'spectacles
The prize fight ring in this coun-
try is doomed-it is safe to say
that.
And honor is due to those who
have made this fight against il, to
the officials, governors, mayors, po-
lice chiefs, clergymen and all others
who have realized that men were
put here not to fight each other,
put to conquer nature, and TO es-
taDilsh on the earth great broth
erhood of peace and happiness
A MAGNIFICENT COSTUME.