The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1915-06-03

out among the ships company the
next day. Every ship listens all the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS wouldn't? And
that is another boyish trick.
Even in times of general peace all
the forms exacted OF vessels arriY-
ing in any foreign port have seemed
to me childish survivals of an old
tribal state of society when anybody
outside of the home clan must be
suspected of evil intentions. A
steamer drops anchor in some port
after a long voyage-perhaps from
! the new world to the old-she cannot
! even drop her anchor except between
/ the prescribed hours that are an
nounced by the firing of gun! First
there comes from land launch car
rying the health officer of the port,
| who must discover any instances OF
| contagious disease among the strang-
ers that might be dangerous to the
| community. This official exchanges
few words with the ships doctor,
perhaps cigars are passed, and that
| form Is over. The health taboo, the
one sensible taboo of them all, is thus
easily and quickly satisfied. Then
comes the customs officers. This is
ordinarily a much more serious af-
fair, as usually property is more SER
iously considered than health. The
/ customs officer takes a serious inter-
est in what the stranger proposes to
bring within the gates Of his tribe,
even in the small things that the pas
sengers carry personally with them,
and he uses various well known in
| Quisitorial methods to discover and
assess all property that the ship ex-
poets to land. For as it obviously
has all come from outside the limits
of the tribe, It must be hostile ma
terial, the possession of some strang-
er tribe, and therefore liable to all
sorts of fines and penalties, in some
cases to confiscation.
Customs regulations, think, Illus
trate most completely the survival in
peace Of that childish tribal spirit
among mature men which war arous-
es. Apart from any economic absurd
ity in the tariff idea and aside from
the dire political corruption that a
tariff inevitably entails, also from the
industrial weakening of the country
that relies upon this form Of taboo,
the habit of collecting customs works
another insidlous harm in that It cul-
tivates this tribal instinct in men,
the desire to shut themselves off from
other equally righteous peoples and
to set up barriers that will be to the
disadvantage of all their neighbors.
Anything that encourages such a.pro-
| vincial way of taking life, that ac-
centuates differences of opportunity
and priyilege-in brief that tends to
increase the tribal instinct of men
is an indirect hindrance to- pro-
gress, to civilization. This customs
idea Is a treasured relic of barbarism
fostered in our modern world by the
| self interest of few individuals that
make money out Of its restrictions
upon free exchanges among the peo-
pies of the world. These days there
Is talk of increasing certain duties,
for example, those on German coal
tar dyes in order that in the event
of another world war We may be
wholly independent Of Germany
which has a virtual monopoly in this
product. Reasoning on the assump
ton of another world war before this
one is ended seems peculiarly bar
barous.
Naturally war increases the con
seriousness of this primitive tribal in
stinct thousand fold and gives it {
sort of religious sanction that be
comes irresistible to the ordinary
men. We forget that other men ma,
be made in Gods image as we'll al
ourselves and probably are as mu.l
attached to the ihage as We are
It becomes a patriotic duty not onl!
to kill the foreigner but also to stea
his property and to see that he is de
prived of free intercourse with all o
his neighbors, even those who thin
better of him than we do-to worr
him, in short, in every conceivabl
way just as We worry him all we dar
in peace times by arbitrary restriC
lions on his trading privileges. An
the result are those forlorn ship
rotting out their usefulness in man
of the harbors OF the world, inter-
ed" to use the learned euphemism G
the profession; also in that drear
collection of so called neutral" me-
chant ships held up at Glib until som
puzzle headed official in Londo
makes up his mind that their cargoe
are harmless. Hence also the poo
battered battle cruisers and supe
In loo