o had the heaviest club, the strongest arm, or
the thickest skull. Man's interrelationships multiplied as humanity
advanced; with each new relation came new causes for quarrel, and for
a time advancing civilization brought but increase in murders and
assassinations.

We know the process by which personal combat ceased; how the duel
replaced murder and ambush and assassination; how courts of law
replaced the duel. The dreamer saw the day when personal combat should
be no more; the man of mind refuted all the arguments in favor of the
duel of men; the constructive statesman of that early day instituted
courts of law and equity. Men who had a difference insisted that it
was their quarrel and they alone could settle it; but reason saw that
two combatants inflamed by passion are least fitted of all men to see
where justice lies. Many held that where honor is involved, no one can
adjust the difficulty but those most directly concerned; but reason
saw that a man's honor cannot be vindicated by killing his enemy or
being killed by him. Men said, "If personal combat is abolished,
courage and strength will perish from the earth." But reason saw that
personal combat in a selfish cause does not bring out the highest type
of courage; and that there are opportunities enough for the exercise
of the highest and best moral and physical courage to keep valor alive
forever. It was finally urged that there would be no power to enforce
the decree if personal differences were left to the adjudication of
others; but reason said, "That power will come with the need for it."
And so courts of law and equity arose, based on the need of humanity;
laws were passed defining rights and limiting aggression; and when one
man wronged another, that wrong was settled in court by the power of
the whole people and not in personal combat with the bludgeon or the
knife.

For similar reasons wars between states and tribes have ceased; and
face to face with the inevitable logic of past progress stands the
world to-day. Though humanity has been slow to see it, the truth has
begun to dawn in the hearts of men--that international wars are no
more to be justified than civil strife, tribal warfare, or personal
combat. Gradually the omnipotent power of right is overcoming the
inertia of humanity, and the world is moving. One by one the awful
truths concerning war are forcing themselves upon the consciousness
and the conscience of men. The mighty power of fact is be