DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13852#0138
9°
CREATION OF A WORLD-CENTRE.
gain the sympathy of rulers by scientific reasoning proving to them that the
interests of men and states will be better secured by means of the affiliation
of mankind ? Only upon the establishment of a world-cooperative, adminis-
trative institution can the progress of peace be fully assured. And until
peace movements are united in one great centre guiding and sanctioning
human activities and until their motives are shown to be of world interest,
much of their work will be in vain, and national armaments will increase.
Not that the construction and maintenance of armaments is harmful in
itself. This is not disputable by any reasonable man. Pacifists may denounce
the multiplication of deadly machines for the protection of the social and
political right of states as against all spiritual progress; they may stigmatise
it as a bloody and degrading way of protecting industry and commerce;
they may point to the desolation and suffering inflicted by war; they may
enlist the sympathies of many thinking people, and their position may be
almost irrefutable : nevertheless, the world s expenditure for military prepa-
rations will continue to increase by leaps and bounds, until some higher
form of protection has been found, whereby conflicting claims may be equi-
tably settled, and peaceful development assured to all mankind.
The idealist is constantly proposing schemes for the reduction of arma-
ments. He dreams of the immense energy that might be thus set free and
directed into wider channels of progress towards the higher and more
advantageous requirements of humanity. How far the idealist may be right
and the practical man wrong, is a question we need not here discuss. But,
unless idealism, with all its claim to be heard, is built on a practical and
economic basis, " Dreadnoughts " and all the inventions of modern warfare
must continue to increase. Humanity may protest, but its voice is lost in
the roar of the whirlpool which the practical man calls : " Necessity ".
There must, however, come a limit to what is now generally considered
by the pacifist as a useless waste of human endeavour and of money. Yet
this limit will only be safely reached when some means more righteous than
war have been discovered for protecting the interests and well-being of the
nations. When an adequate substitute is forthcoming, then and not till
then, will the heavy armoured burden of war, that tends to break the
backbone of both man and state be lightened, and the prospects of peace be
brought within practical realisation. It is in the nature of man to fight, and
he will fight for his rights. Yet, if he may obtain his rights without fight-
ing, his mind and soul rejoice. For, though a war may be honourable
and just from a material and human standpoint, the God in man's inmost
soul is ever crying out for peace and goodwill upon earth. It is the cry of
our higher nature which is always striving to create ideals for the benefit
of humanity. Hitherto, recourse to arms, or in other words, a trial of
strength, has been the only ultimate form of protest against international
injustice; and this method, which is, in fact, nature's law for all forms ot
CREATION OF A WORLD-CENTRE.
gain the sympathy of rulers by scientific reasoning proving to them that the
interests of men and states will be better secured by means of the affiliation
of mankind ? Only upon the establishment of a world-cooperative, adminis-
trative institution can the progress of peace be fully assured. And until
peace movements are united in one great centre guiding and sanctioning
human activities and until their motives are shown to be of world interest,
much of their work will be in vain, and national armaments will increase.
Not that the construction and maintenance of armaments is harmful in
itself. This is not disputable by any reasonable man. Pacifists may denounce
the multiplication of deadly machines for the protection of the social and
political right of states as against all spiritual progress; they may stigmatise
it as a bloody and degrading way of protecting industry and commerce;
they may point to the desolation and suffering inflicted by war; they may
enlist the sympathies of many thinking people, and their position may be
almost irrefutable : nevertheless, the world s expenditure for military prepa-
rations will continue to increase by leaps and bounds, until some higher
form of protection has been found, whereby conflicting claims may be equi-
tably settled, and peaceful development assured to all mankind.
The idealist is constantly proposing schemes for the reduction of arma-
ments. He dreams of the immense energy that might be thus set free and
directed into wider channels of progress towards the higher and more
advantageous requirements of humanity. How far the idealist may be right
and the practical man wrong, is a question we need not here discuss. But,
unless idealism, with all its claim to be heard, is built on a practical and
economic basis, " Dreadnoughts " and all the inventions of modern warfare
must continue to increase. Humanity may protest, but its voice is lost in
the roar of the whirlpool which the practical man calls : " Necessity ".
There must, however, come a limit to what is now generally considered
by the pacifist as a useless waste of human endeavour and of money. Yet
this limit will only be safely reached when some means more righteous than
war have been discovered for protecting the interests and well-being of the
nations. When an adequate substitute is forthcoming, then and not till
then, will the heavy armoured burden of war, that tends to break the
backbone of both man and state be lightened, and the prospects of peace be
brought within practical realisation. It is in the nature of man to fight, and
he will fight for his rights. Yet, if he may obtain his rights without fight-
ing, his mind and soul rejoice. For, though a war may be honourable
and just from a material and human standpoint, the God in man's inmost
soul is ever crying out for peace and goodwill upon earth. It is the cry of
our higher nature which is always striving to create ideals for the benefit
of humanity. Hitherto, recourse to arms, or in other words, a trial of
strength, has been the only ultimate form of protest against international
injustice; and this method, which is, in fact, nature's law for all forms ot