South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-08
BY DR.. Charles H. rarkhurst.

Dt Ut NiidNlt-S H. A-tfEkllufHt.
IN discussing any question Of
morals 1t IS necess ny to start with
the understanding that man is funda-
mentally a beast This is not 10 deny
that he may have angelic possibilities.
but possibilities. are not an asset upon
which one can prudently bank. It IS
not in point 10 discuss the question
whether he acquired his animal nature
and prOpensities by the Darwinlan
method or by some other process
equally mysterious All that we are
urging IS that in the condition In
which he enters life he is practically
an animal. just as bears and wolves
are animals, and an Undomesticated
animal.
Now the policy that requires 70
be pursued in dealing with the young
creature that is practically an animal,
and only possibly an angel, is TO foster
angelic possibilities TO the point OF Sc
curing 10 them the mastery over the
proDcnsities Of the other kind. and
crowd down the animal 10 a state Of
submission. That IS all perfectly clear
and rational The Bible teaches the
same thing when IT says, Keep your
body under"
Men Like Cats and Dogs.
Now. one of the propensities con-
the disposition TO fight. In that re-
spect we are precisely like cats and
dogs They do not quarrel because
they have anything in particular TO
gain by il, but because il is their ma
ture to- There is no immortality in
v0ived IN 1t in their case, because
there are in them no higher propen-
sites Of even a possible kind for the
animal disposition to be submitted to-.
As the disposition to fight is one
OF the beastly ingredients OF our ma
ture-a part of mans inhumanity-
the eradication Of that disposition is
one OF the purposes which the educa-
ton Of the home, the school and the
church should be made to subserve.
There are two practical ways of COM
passing this. one positive the other
negative
The first is 70 foster the finer pos
siblities, the latent seeds of sweet
humanness that corae into existence
in the child al gside of his beastli
ness and cultivate in him a spirit of
loving kindness. There is no danger
Of our fsticuffing or bayoneting a per
son whom we have first embraced with
our affection.
The second is to discOuntenance IN
the child or boy any practices Of eX-
ercises that will have a tendency to
foster in him the militant spirit that
is to say, the lighting spirit There Is
too much Of IL in him by nature TO
make il necessary to have IT intensified
by training. IT is because of the wolf
that IS in the boy that he had rather
drill with a musket than with a stick
and drilling with the musket only
arouses the wolf 1t is poor consis-
tency to send a boy TO Sunday schoo
TO teach him the Christian principles
Of peace. and then on Monday send
him 10 military school TO teach him
the spirit war.
An exceedingly interesting exhibit
ton was recently given in Carnegie
hall by Gen. McAlpin's scouts. Mill
tary drill forms an essential part OF
their discipline. The boys displayed
the excellence Of the training tina
their admirable commander had giveI
them. Among other exercises they
dragged in a small cannon, loaded it
fired il. and all that was necessary Il
make the performance complete was
to have an enemy I'm front of it 10 b'
cut down by the ball which wa
imaginatively discharged.
Boys Get Wrong Impression
Now no one can be at all familiar
with the elementary principles of hu
man nature and not understand tina
10y that performance war was mad
less terrible, indeed was made almOs
fascinating, to the boys that partici
pated in the performance.
IL Ids bteu Sdlu recently lNdL I'M
is an inopportune time to discuss sucl
matters because of the excited condi
ton of the public mind. il is the bes
time in all the world 10 discuss them
The time TO talk about things is whe
people are interested in them. an
val is just now the worlds suprem
interest.
If the boy could actually witness
battle close at hand and see men sho
dead or run through with bayOnets
and their bodies already dead or per
haps not yet dead, thrown in heap
into the trenches in quick and per
haps premature burial, then he woul
understand what war means an
would ain a terrified sense of its hor
ror. But it is another thing for hir
70 play war on the stage or to rea
about war in a history where tn
terrible details are invisible to tn
eve, and only the immensely of tn