The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-02
By BOOTH HARRINGTON


 Every ordinary man can remember that during his boyhocd there was one vital point upon which he always in sisted whenever he was threatened with discipline for getting into fight: He began its'
 Boys realize that justice rests upon the question, Who was the assailaut2 And almost every boy has more than once suffered under the sting of an adult injustice which, declining to in vestfgate. punished him for lighting when he had ben merely defending him self. Of course, self-defense does net consist entirely of wardng gestures, for if it did it could not defend. per- son attacked must either be beaten or take his choice of running away or of striking back and if the assailant is the speedicr, running away is a mere post ponement. of being beaten. But specta- tors of g conflict (especially if they have not noted or comprehended it's begin ning) almost always take a superior po- sition of disgusted impartiality. "Brutesr' they say. Fighting! They ought to be ashamed of themselves!7
 l remember such a case. A boy friend of mine, an awkward but spirited 10- year-oid, was returning alone from an afternoons skating when sturdier, shorter boy the same age opposed his progress, and addressed to him the provocative formula: Who you loolin' at, you dern fool your" My friend re- piled placatively that he wasn't looking at anything, whereupon the stranger de- manded hotly: You call me nothin', do you?" and, striking him suddenly upon the mouth, snatched his skates and turned to make away with them.
 My friend managed to trip the little thief, however, and the latter, rising, struck out fiercely, whereupon a fight of some duration took place. It was interrupted by an elderly pedestrian, shocked and indignant. You scoun- drels!'' he said. ''Fightingi Stop it.' Then for emphasis he struck my friend 8 sharp blow across the face with an umbrella, and forced his way between the combatants But he's got my skatesF' my friend cried 'ShameH' was the response. If I knew your fathers and mothers I'd see that you were both whipped for fighting. Shamep'
 My friend tried desperately to dodge round the peacemaker, hoping to re- cover his skates from the other boy, but he failed, for the elderly man seized him by the collar. s'You would would you? Trying to get at him again, you little beast No, you don't! I'll teach you to stop fighting when I tell you to!" Thereupon my friend got the shaking of his life, and, though he tried throughout this martyrdom to convince his shaker that he didn't begin it'' and that the other boy had his skates and was now running away with them, he was unsuc- cessful in removing the impression that all belligerents are wicked. "Therer' said the elderly man, releasing him at last; "let me catch you fighting again and I'll give you a worse onei Go on home! Get out of this neighborhood! I don't want to listen to you!
 So, bloody and dizzy, my friend went on his way, and the elderly man pro- ceeded. convinced that he had conducted himself in a manner beneficial to public morals.
 Now as any boy understands that the most important question about any fight is .''Who started it?" so any boy also understands that the question next in order and next in importance is "Why did he start it?" Any, boy under made unless it takes these two questions into vital account, and that disciplinary measures not founded upon them are arbitrary and unjust and vicious Any boy understands that a peacemaker or discipliiisrian who places both belliger- unjust but, in effect, stupidly partial to the cause of the guilty belligerent-for one beligerent is guilty.
 V NOT AS WISE AS BOYS
 People who do not understand these fundamental matters are not so wise as boys; and every man has but to turn back in memory to his boyhood to know that the important questions in regard to any fight are" Who started it?" and "Why?''
 When the war began in August, 1914. all those neutrals who wished to under