The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-12-14
Peace as a State of Mind
BY FREDERICK j. HASKIN

WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. 1.-the
reason we have war is that there are
certain arrangements of cells in the
brains of most men which cause them
to become excited and to want to
fight when bands play and bugles call
and patriotic speeches are made.
Peace will be possible only when,
by education, the mind OF the race
has been changed so that war, and all
its attendant sights and sounds, cause
n different reaction in men anu
women.
This is the opinion of George W.
Grille, celebrated American surgeon
who took advantage of his service III
France during the war, TO make
special study of the effect of war up,
on human beings, and who puDnsned
| his conclusions in a book called a
Mechanistic View of War ana Pedce.
Crine's views are of special interest
! Just now because the disarmament con-
| ference, if it is doing nothing eise' Is
| proving once more that whether we
are to have war or peace is question
which depends upon the average lhdil
and not upon the governments.
| Governments are war-making BODIES
| in the nature of the case. The dlsarm-
! ment conference was called, not pc
cause the governments wanted peace
or believed it was possible, but be
cause public opinion demanded it. Now
| that it is gathered, the diplomats are
busily jockeying around for adVan
Itages in the way of armament Mean
| while the common man is fed his daily
dose of platitudes about universal
| brotherhood and the like.
AS Grille points out, universal broth
| erhood is largely dream: Man Is
| fighting animal.
/ Grille is celebrated for his discovery
that emotions in man produce absolute
! changes in his blood, and that the
| blood does not return to normal unit
those emotions have been discharged
in action. When you become angry
you feel pressing need for action. /
! you cannot fight you will stamp you
foot wave your arms, kick the cat, o.
do something else "to relieve you
feelings" as you say. This actor
which you crave is really a physica
necessity. If you were repeated.
made angry and kept from all actor
and expression of your mood. yo'
would die of acid in the blood, for an
ger produces a definite discharge o
acid substances from your liver, ant
other internal organs. All of thl
Grille and others have proved beyon'
question.
! What remains somewhat mysteriou
is why a given stimulus produces ont
+, emotion in one man and another emo
ton in another man. Why does ange
make one man want to fight and an
other want to run away? Why doe
band playing a patriotic air max
most men want to fight?
Grille assumes that there is certain
arrangements of brain cells in eacl
individual which determine his reaC
ton to a given stimulus. and tina
these arrangements are dependent VI
on both heredity and education. Il
> word, your reaction to a given stimu
: lus is partly determined when you ar
born but can be changed to some e1
3 tent in the course of life.
All men tend to react to many stin
uli with a desire to fight and destroy
This is inevitable because ma
: throughout his history has been figh
; ing for his very life. He has Tough
; the jungle beasts, the elements, all tn
: forces of nature. Tribes of men hav
: fought with each other for surviva
1 and so have individual men. Thos
Y who would not or could not fight hav
, persisted and have left no Offspring
The best fighters have won the mos
mates and left the most descendant
Hence man is pre-eminently a figh
, ing animal, and to proceed on an
other assumption IS futile.
: But men can fight in many differer
ways. For example, individuals use
! to fight with each other physically an
destructively. Now there is con
i paratively little of that in civilize
o countries. Individuals fight each OF
er in business and trade and in til
arts All of the games they play, frol
dominoes to football, are mock battle
!. These things satisfy the fighting in
!. pulse without destroying the race.
a AS men have progressed, larger an
@ larger units of organization have give
: up destructive fighting for compel
ton First families banded togethe
n then tribes, then small nations, an
o then large ones. II is only among II
:. nations themselves that destructiN
physical combat still persists. Ar