FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58  
59   60   61   62   >>  
e evils which still exist. In everything that concerns the economic life of the community, as regards both distribution and conditions of production, what is required is more public control, not less--how much more, I do not profess to know. Another direction in which there is urgent need of the substitution of law and order for anarchy is international relations. At present, each sovereign state has complete individual freedom, subject only to the sanction of war. This individual freedom will have to be curtailed in regard to external relations if wars are ever to cease. But when we pass outside the sphere of material possessions, we find that the arguments in favor of public control almost entirely disappear. Religion, to begin with, is recognized as a matter in which the state ought not to interfere. Whether a man is Christian, Mahometan, or Jew is a question of no public concern, so long as he obeys the laws; and the laws ought to be such as men of all religions can obey. Yet even here there are limits. No civilized state would tolerate a religion demanding human sacrifice. The English in India put an end to suttee, in spite of a fixed principle of non-interference with native religious customs. Perhaps they were wrong to prevent suttee, yet almost every European would have done the same. We cannot _effectively_ doubt that such practices ought to be stopped, however we may theorize in favor of religious liberty. In such cases, the interference with liberty is imposed from without by a higher civilization. But the more common case, and the more interesting, is when an independent state interferes on behalf of custom against individuals who are feeling their way toward more civilized beliefs and institutions. "In New South Wales," says Westermarck, "the first-born of every lubra used to be eaten by the tribe 'as part of a religious ceremony.' In the realm of Khai-muh, in China, according to a native account, it was customary to kill and devour the eldest son alive. Among certain tribes in British Columbia the first child is often sacrificed to the sun. The Indians of Florida, according to Le Moyne de Morgues, sacrificed the first-born son to the chief....'"[4] [4] _Op cit._, p. 459. There are pages and pages of such instances. There is nothing analogous to these practices among ourselves. When the first-born in Florida was told that his king and country needed him, this was a mere mista
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58  
59   60   61   62   >>  



Top keywords:

public

 

religious

 

civilized

 

liberty

 

Florida

 

sacrificed

 

relations

 

freedom

 
individual
 
suttee

control

 
native
 

interference

 

practices

 

behalf

 
custom
 

interferes

 
beliefs
 

individuals

 

feeling


institutions

 
effectively
 

stopped

 
prevent
 

European

 

theorize

 
common
 

interesting

 

independent

 

civilization


higher
 

imposed

 
Morgues
 

needed

 

Columbia

 

Indians

 

analogous

 

instances

 

country

 

British


tribes

 

ceremony

 
Westermarck
 
eldest
 

devour

 

account

 

customary

 

demanding

 

present

 

sovereign