The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-02-17
PLAN TO OUTLAW WAR


The following article, prepared by
Salmon 0. Lawson, contains many
good thoughts that should be useful
to all those who are actually seeking
light on the pathway of real hu-
man progress, which up to the present
time has been so heavily beclouded
with brutalities and wars that would
be disgraceful. even among barba-
rians:
FOreword
The people of the world are ready
and eager for the next step in the
slow advance from savagery toward
international civilization. They be-
lieve that the boundless sacrifices and
sufferings of the Great War should
have some milestone Of progress in
the moral code Of mankind.
They want war unmasked and de-
clared in international law to be what
it is in fact, the supreme enemy OF
the human race.
They want the conscience of men
everywhere to think of war, not as an
honorable profession, not as the path
to glory and power, but as the arch
murderer Of the youth of the race
the master assassin of motherhood
and the home.
They want war revealed as the pa
ralvsis Of production and the suicide
Of commerce, the betrayal of brother
hood, the poison in the cup of good
will between the nations of earth, the
forerunner of pestilence and famine,
spreading ruin and desolation alike
upon the victors and vanquishei and
crucifying Christ afresh upon every
battlefield.
They want war outlawed as a crime
against the law of nations and the lie
of humanity.
They want militarists branded as
super felons among the criminals OF
the earth.
Let the first step toward the out
lawry of war be taken by the confer
encp now at Washington, and 1t Will
in this act alone, mark an epoch IN
the life of the race and lift mankind
to new levels of moral understanding
and power. This step would begin the
liberation of the people from the age
long thraldom Of the sword and prove
that the countless dead on all the bat
tlefelds of the Great War have not
died in vain--Col. Raymond Robins.
Plan to Outlaw War.
A Conference of all civilized nations
to be called for the creation and codi-
iication of international law; the code
to contain, among other things, the
following provisions, with which none
of the other provisions Of the code
shall be in conflict:
1. The further use of war as an in
Stitution for the settlement of inter-
national disputes shall be abolished.
2. War between nations shall be
declared to be a public crime, punish
able by the law of nations.
3. War shall be defined in the code
and the right of defense against actual
or imminent attack shall be preserved.
a. All annexations, exactions or
seizures by force, duress, or fraud,
shall be null and void.
S. An international court with af
firmative jurisdiction over purely in
ternational disputes shall be created
modelled as nearly as may be on the
jurisdiction of the United States Su-
preme Court over controversies be-
tween states. All purely information
al disputes as defined by the code shall
be decided and settled by the inter
national court sitting as a judicial
body, which shall be given jurisdic-
ton over all parties to a dispute upon
the petition of any party to the dis
pute or of any signatory nation.
6. All nations shall agree to abide