South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-11-26
WHY Is Il Noble to Get
Get Killed for the State?

We call it heroism then, though In reality IL
IS often so much easier to die than to liVe-to
live leanly in the spirit Of Christ 1t is only
when we think philosophicaly that we doubt:
that we are apt to wonder whether the butch
cry OF St. Bartholomew, the sectarian massa'
cres which decimated Central Europe. the mad
deaths OF the millions religiously chronicled
IN the wars OK history books. give any
man the right TO speak upon the morality of
death. as It concerns the individual the
community.
II It Is wise and just for Governments and
peoples TO take life. for an IDEA or cause, ma
tionally or punitively, has the individual not
the same right over what alone IL ln5estructi-
bly, hist A man has only life. 1t is all that
he has In the world. He can create other life;
on the other hand. the inevitability OF all life
Is death, which is thus natural and as inVo-
untary as his creation. II the State can
honor him, as at Balaklava, for riding into
death for a question about the Holy Places
which certainly few, IL any, OF those noble six
hundred understood either the rights or
wrongs OF, can II be wrong for man TO say
TO himself: 'T am sick and useless" or Il am
weary OF the struggle" simply Il am will
ing 20 die'-adsum-and there to put an end
to It?
We may not die. II Is a queer thought, this
slavery to life, we who in this great respect
differ from the animals In that our lives are
given to us in our own keeping. Man may
starve-he does His whole life may be passed
in misery and suffering. in crime. in madness.
in waste and useless traffic, in wantonness
and unloveliness, but he may not die; he NAV
not end the misery, the sorrow. the indignity.
the disease, the utter degradation of the con-
ditioGs that are eating into his SOUL he, poor
unit sole master when all is said and done OF
his own individuality, while England is ex.
pending nearly a hundred million pounds a
year TO keep up and teach men to kill others
as quickly and efficiently as possible for any
reason that arbitrarily may be given to them
A Right to
Decent and Adequate Life.
The law is severe enough a poor girl who
has got into trouble (as the saying Isl. and
seeks to take her life. But let question Of
lineage arise II an ambassador put out his
tongue at the emperor let there be some SQUAD
bic among the Powers over mines. or the pri-
ority OF the rights OF spoliation and expropris-
ton. and at once it IS an honor to kill and to
die. and death is a national glory. There must
be something amiss with this elastic concep-
suicide is a cowardly act It may be-as much
as some forms Of heroism are foolish.
Granted that It is mans duty TO live then
assuredly he may claim the right to live
deeently and adequately. It is the problem
OF modern civilisation. To life, death means
nothing; men. therefore. are not likely TO die.
But some day they may rise up in nations and
communities and demand the right to live
decently. which. after all. is the essential To
punish men or women for seeking to end their
lives. while permitting something like 80 per
cent OF the whole 10 live In abject and chronic
misery is unworthy Of any State purporting
% be scientific or human or Christian. What
IS vital in the State. il art, in realization o.
any sort, is life. For our Iifes purpose in this
world. death is simply its negation. It is what
We do nere, now. that matters: that lives aftef
a. When We are gone. who knows?