The sun., 1919-09-14
isers Views Prompt Question: Why Doesn't He Try Suicides

killing his father and whose body was
disposed of in this fashion at the juno
ton OF Upper and Lower Grosvenor
place, exactly opposite the entrance
to the gardens of Buckingham Pai-
ace, that he did not rest until a month
later he had secured the passage of
an act of Parliament forbidding any
further burial of a felo de Sc, In a
public highway.
Military and naval ethics through
out the world, despite the obstacles OF
the law and the dictates Of Christian
churches, still require death self-in-
ficted to escape dishonor. 1t is con-
sidered to such an extent as the SUI
preme atonement that in most cases 1t
| is looked upon as obliterating the stig-
ma Of dishonor. And it cannot be de-
MED that these unwritten laws extend
| from the armed forces to men OF birth
| and breeding in civil life and govern
| their conduct. On the continent or
| Europe before the war men who had
been subjected to insult for which they
| were unable to obtain satisfaction on
the field of honor, that is to say by
single combat, thought 1t necessary to
|
tracism for having left an insult un-
| avenged.
There are at least a score Of cases
| to my knowledge Of officers OF CONT
mental armies and of civilian mobiles
who after being subjected to some
grave affront by a monarch or by
royal parsonage from whom they were
unable to obtain satisfaction by rea-
son of his rank he'd recourse to what
they considered the only alternative
suicide.
Japan Has Rigid Code.
This idea is in no way restricted to
Europe. Indeed, IL remains to this
day q regular and accepted feature OF
life in Japan. A few years before the
war, when the station master At
Mott committed hara-l1iri for having,
through a piece of inadvertence, de-
| layed the Emperor for over an hour
on his way back to the metropolis on
4 the conclusion of the grand manRu-
vres, and DIR. Yamakawa, president OF
the Kyushiu University, one of the
leading and till then. most respected
scientists of Japan, wrote to the news
papers criticising the station masters
act of self destruction, he was de-
nounced throughout the length and
breadth of the land for his "rebellious.
sacrilegious and utterly disreputable
views" and in Difference to popular
clamor was dismissed by the Minister
of Education from his office and
obliged to leave the country to escape
the contumely of his fellow citizens
In the war between Russia and
Japan in 1905 the Japanese prisoners
taken were infinitesimal in number.
This was because they preferred death
to capture and there are doubtless
! many who remember the graphic ao-
, count published in the London Times
! of the sinking Of the japanese trans
, port Kyushiu-Maru off the Corean
, coast, on April rs. 1904. when the
many hundreds of officers and troops
, on board all killed themselves or one
another, in full view Of the Russian
fleet rather than surrender to the
Muscovite launches which had been
sent alongside their sinking vessel in
5 order to rescue them into captivity.
! New York has gone on record as re-
5 moving all legal restrictions on suicide.
{ This is going too far. The recent act
4 of the Legislature at Albany will have
= to be amended. Some sort Of restraint
: ought to be adopted in order to pre-
r vent every fit of temporary despon-
/, dency from resulting in the destruc-
n ton of life that might still be Of use
{ to the commonwealth. How would 1t
4 do to have recourse to some measure,
. such as that adopted by the great Ro-
r man Emperor Trajan, who on finding
|. that suicide had become unduly preva-
n lent In the Eternal City decreed that
n it was a State privilege and that from
: thenceforth no one was free to take
d his own life without obtaining a
T license from the Government. for
|. which he exacted a more or less heavy
h fee, the act of self-6estruction being
Il subsequently accomplished in the
5, species of State dispensaries which he
o established for the purpose and where
n poison was dispensed on the premises
o in return for the presentation of the
n imperial prescription or license.