Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-13
INVITING THE SWORD
By DR.. Frank Crane
6<TNHERE is no path ito the millennium
other than the path OF justice and

other than the path Of justice, and
if we discard the best attainable in
strumentalites of justice, to that extent we
invite the decisions of the sword"
These are the words used by Secretary. Of
State Hughes in a recent speech. They in
wife our attention to one of the fundamental
laws of nature.
Nature as we'll as the United States, has
it's constitution, its foundation laws, which
no court nor congress may set aside The
kings of the earth may set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together, but these
great laws Of Nature shall go serenely on
undisturbed forever, while those who scheme
to violate them shall lie in forgotten graves.
There are, for instance, certain physical
laws, laws Of health You may violate them
if you choose. Thousands of silly asses have
done the like, and thousands more will con-
tinue the same fatuous experimentation. But
those laws were in force with Father Adam
and Old Man Noah, and they will still be in
force upon your children Of the millfonth
generation hence.
You cannot eat poison without getting
SICK you cannot live in dirt without becOm-
ing diseasedJ you cannot refuse all exercise
and not have fabby muscles. No man made
these laws and no man can unmake them
And the laws of the spirit, the great cos
mic laws that, govern souls are every whit
as infeXible.
You cannot give way to the winds of hate
and vengeance without reapipg the Whirl-
wind of disaster.
You cannot decline all self-discipline with
out coming to grief.
You cannot lie and be trusted. \
So also no nation can hope for permanence
except as it approXimates justice. Wherever
injustice is done, whether it is a sporadic
act of weakness or passions, or deliberate
fraud incrUsted in an institution, some day
or other that injustice is going to bear it's
1orrf 70 Fruit Of vic and min
You may dress your injustice up in mag
nfficence and dignity, you may decree it from
She imperial throne, vote it by majority of
the senate. or approve it in the supreme
court; the worm of evil in it never dies and
will some day breed its unpleasant progeny
of revolution, anarchy or other disaster.
Justice is merely another name for Wis
dom and common sense Whatever is I'M
just is always foolish.
, 1t is necessary, therefore for the state to
create the instruments of justice. That
means that it is necessary for the state to
put force, including the police, the army and
navy behind the decisions of that body
whose business it is to determine what is
right.
In the same way there can be no saliva
ton for humanity until the Supreme Force,
the power of military coercion, is put be-
hind that international court |or deliberatlVe
assembly whose business it shall be to adj
minister justice to all mankind.
Our present system Of patiOnal1sm invites
the sword We can hardly say that another
war may come. Another war is bound to
come, 1t will come automatically. 1t will
come simply because We have developed the
machinery for rule by superior might instead
of developing machinery for obtaining JUS
tice.
At present the armed forces of the world
stand behind the wilful pride of each sepa-
rate nation Nothing but periodic disaster
can come from this system, as indeed it al
ways has come from it.
To pray for peace in Church while in the
oounseIs of state we refuse to institute the
machinery for peace is arrant hypocrisy
when it is not fatuous ignorance.