Why Men Fight: A method of abolishing the international duelRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Why Men Fight: A method of abolishing the international duel
Russell, Bertrand
Liberty; Property; Social problems; State, The; War
The King has been graciously pleased to accept a copy of the little
book containing suggestions to local education authorities and teachers
in Wales as to the teaching of patriotism which has just been issued
by the Welsh Department of the Board of Education in connection with
the observance of the National Anniversary of St. David’s Day. His
Private Secretary (Lord Stamfordham), in writing to Mr. Alfred T.
Davies, the Permanent Secretary of the Welsh Department, says that his
Majesty is much pleased with the contents of the book, and trusts that
the principles inculcated in it will bear good fruit in the lives and
characters of the coming generation.—_Morning Post_, January 29, 1916.
[16] What Madame Montessori has achieved in the way of minimizing
obedience and discipline with advantage to education is almost
miraculous.
[17] There was a provision for suits _in forma pauperis_, but for
various reasons this provision was nearly useless; a new and somewhat
better provision has recently been made, but is still very far from
satisfactory.
[18] The following letter (_New Statesman_, December 4, 1915)
illustrates the nature of his activities:—
DIVORCE AND WAR.
_To the Editor of the_ “New Statesman.”
SIR,—The following episodes may be of interest to your readers. Under
the new facilities for divorce offered to the London poor, a poor woman
recently obtained a decree _nisi_ for divorce against her husband,
who had often covered her body with bruises, infected her with a
dangerous disease, and committed bigamy. By this bigamous marriage
the husband had ten illegitimate children. In order to prevent this
decree being made absolute, the Treasury spent at least £200 of the
taxes in briefing a leading counsel and an eminent junior counsel and
in bringing about ten witnesses from a city a hundred miles away to
prove that this woman had committed casual acts of adultery in 1895
and 1898. The net result is that this woman will probably be forced by
destitution into further adultery, and that the husband will be able
to treat his mistress exactly as he treated his wife, with impunity,
so far as disease is concerned. In nearly every other civilized
country the marriage would have been dissolved, the children could
have been legitimated by subsequent marriage, and the lawyers employed
by the Treasury would not have earned the large fees they did from
the community for an achievement which seems to most other lawyers
thoroughly anti-social in its effects. If any lawyers really feel that
society is benefited by this sort of litigation, why cannot they give
their services for nothing, like the lawyers who assisted the wife? If
we are to practise economy in war-time, why cannot the King’s Proctor
be satisfied with a junior counsel only? The fact remains that many
persons situated like the husband and wife in question prefer to avoid
having illegitimate children, and the birth-rate accordingly suffers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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