Among barbaric or savage peoples this is natural; but among
civilized nations it is hardly to be anticipated. If the
negro who shoots his fellow because he believes himself to
have been cheated out of ten cents were really civilized, he
would either not have the impulse to kill or, having the
impulse to kill, would have sufficient power of self-control
to refrain from doing so. This power of self-control may be
natural or acquired, and it may or may not be possessed by the
man who feels a desire to commit a homicide. The fact to be
observed--the interesting and, broadly speaking, the
astonishing fact--is that among a people like ourselves
anybody should have a desire to kill. It is even more
astonishing than that the impulse should be yielded to so
often if it comes.

This, then, is the real reason why men kill--because it is
inherent in their state of mind, it is part of their mental
and physical make-up--they are ready to kill, they want to
kill, they are the kind of men who do kill. This is the
result of their heredity, environment, educational and
religious training, or the absence of it. How many readers of
this paper have ever experienced an actual desire to kill
another human being? Probably not one hundredth of one per
cent. They belong to the class of people who either never
have such an impulse, or at any rate have been taught to keep
such impulses under control. Hence it is futile to try to
explain that some men kill for a trifling sum of money, some
because they feel insulted, others because of political or
labor disputes, or because they do not like their food. Any
one of these may be the match that sets off the gunpowder, but