WAPPINGERS (w6prin-jerz) FALLS, N. Y., village, Dutchess County, on Wappinger Creek, about two and one-half miles from its mouth at New Hamburg and seven miles south of Poughkeepsie. It is connected with Pough keepsie by an electric line, and has the ad vantage of the steamer traffic on the Hudson. The river port used by the village is New Hamburg. The name of the village is that of a tribe of Indians who once inhabited this sec tion. The creek here falls over a series of high ledges which form picturesque cascades, and also furnish water power for several manufac tories. The chief industrial establishments are prim-works, established in 1834; overall and sheeting factory, machine shop, grist mill and creameries. The village has a union school, public and parish elementary schools and a school library. There is one and a news paper. Pop. 3,742.
WAR. The last resort for the settlement of disputes is the appeal to physical force, whereby the weaker is either compelled toyield to the demands of the stronger, put to flight, or, in the last extremity, slain. War is resorted to either for adv-antage or for vengeance. The one party possesses something which the other has resolved to seize, or has inflicted some real or supposed injury on the other, which he de termines to punish by the infliction of a corre sponding chastisement. War and law are quite opposed to each other, but while opposed they are also related. The ultimate tneans of enforc ing law is by physical force, but in every society the aim of law is to put down -every appeal to force except on the part of the magistrate, and equally to restrict his use of it to the enforce ment of the law. Where there is no organized society, every individual family, or group, en forces its own claims and appeals to force are consequently frequent, but as society extends its organization these partial appeals to force are declared illegal and put down. But the society, however extended, is still parti.s1; out side of it exist other societies with independent laws and different interests. Between these, disputes are liable to arise, which, failing mutual accommodation, can only be settled by force. In each society,. moreover, the central authority is liable to vicissitudes of strength. When it is active and vigorous, the whole sodety is kept in equilibrium and repose; when it is weak or idle, private or party interests assert themselves, the laws are disobeyed and the central authority may be defied and overthrown. Thus, three conditions of warfare arise according to the degree of organization of society: the state of private war, when no great central authority has been established, or when it has been wholly destroyed; the state of civil war, when such an authority, having been established, has decayed, and the society arranges itself in dif ferent parties for the purpose of maintaining the old or establishing a new central authority; and the state of international war, when states sufficiently powerful to control their own sub jects quarrel among themselves. In each of these states war is conterminous with and op posed to law.
The aim of law is alvrays to control war, and either suppress it or render it subservient to its own enforcement or re-establishment; the aim of war is either to supplement the impotence of law or accomplish some object forbidden by it. Hence the peculiarity of all laws relating to
war. They are flucttiating in their nature, be cause the power to enforce them is frequently wanting; yet they are necessary and in the end efficacious, because force can be applied in favor of law as well as against it, and it commonly becomes the interest of society in the long run so to apply it. It follows also from these condi tions that as there are three states of warfare, so there are three relative states of law opposed to them: international law is opposed to inter national war, national law to civil war, and natural law to private war. In each case law forms the boundary of war and war of law, so that where one is strong the other is weak. International law may thus be defined as con sisting of those common principles which still continue to be recognized and observed by bel ligerents. The persistent disregard of any prin ciple of law by a belligerent would annihilate it as a principle of international law, and as the belligerent has already set the power of its immediate antagonist at defiance, the cuily con siderations which can enforce its observance cif an international law are its own respect for its principle, or its fear of the power of neutral& In like manner national law is opposed to and limits civil war. In as far as either patty sets the national law at defiance the law is abrogated and can only be re-established by force; in as far as it is observed it controls the action of both parties. Private war is opposed by natural law because there is no positive law recognized by the parties. Violence is limited only by the power of conscience of the belligerents.
During the Great War of 1914-18 practically the entire industries of the nations Mvolved were diverted from the usual channels to the one great task of keeping the armies in the field supplied. Great science and skill are applied to the conduct of military operations and the principles on which they ought to be conducted are carefully investigated in the light of experience. In the progress of society certain usages of war have come to be generally recognized. These have varied greatly at different times and in different countries, but the changes in them have been in general favor able to the interests of humanity. The Hague tribunal has done much to codify these rules of warfare and to make their acceptance more general. Prisoners of war are no longer put to death, nor are they reduced to slavery, as was frequent in ancient filmes; and their treat ment has become increasingly mild and lcind. Quarter is now generally granted in battle whenever it is sought, although in the late war it was at times found almost impossible to grant it due to the necessity of detailing men to conduct prisoners to the rear, thus depleting the forces for attack A state of war is ended by armistice, treaty or conquest, although it is more true to say that hostilities are brought to an end by an armistice while a state of war con tinues until a treaty of. peace is concluded, signed and ratified by the belligerents. See CONTRABAND; INTERNATIoNAL LAw ; PRISONERS