An Inquiry Into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation

CHAPTER I. Introductory: on the State and Its Relation to War

INTRODUCTORY: ON THE STATE AND ITS RELATION TO WAR AND PEACE 1

The inquiry is not concerned with the intrinsic merits of peace or war, 2.

--But with the nature, causes and consequences of the preconceptions favoring peace or war, 3.

--A breach of the peace is an act of the government, or State, 3.

--Patriotism is indispensable to furtherance of warlike enterprise, 4.

--All the peoples of Christendom are sufficiently patriotic, 6.

--Peace established by the State, an armistice--the State is an instrumentality for making peace, not for perpetuating it, 7.

--The governmental establishments and their powers in all the Christian nations are derived from the feudal establishments of the Middle Ages, 9.

--Still retain the right of coercively controlling the actions of their citizens, 11.

--Contrast of Icelandic Commonwealth, 12.

--The statecraft of the past half century has been one of competitive preparedness, 14.

--Prussianised Germany has forced the pace in this competitive preparedness, 20.

--An avowedly predatory enterprise no longer meets with approval, 21.

--When a warlike enterprise has been entered upon, it will have the support of popular sentiment even if it is an aggressive war, 22.

--The moral indignation of both parties to the quarrel is to be taken for granted, 23.

--The spiritual forces of any Christian nation may be mobilised for war by either of two pleas: (1) The preservation or furtherance of the community's material interests, real or fancied, and (2) vindication of the National Honour; as perhaps also perpetuation of the national "Culture," 23.

CHAPTER II

ON THE NATURE AND USES OF PATRIOTISM 31

The nature of Patriotism, 31.

--Is a spirit of Emulation, 33.

--Must seem moral, if only to a biased populace, 33.

--The common man is sufficiently patriotic but is hampered with a sense of right and honest dealing, 38.

--Patriotism is at cross purposes with modern life, 38.

--Is an hereditary trait? 41.

--Variety of racial stocks in Europe, 43.

--Patriotism a ubiquitous trait, 43.

--Patriotism disserviceable, yet men hold to it, 46.

--Cultural evolution of Europeans, 48.

--Growth of a sense of group solidarity, 49.

--Material interests of group falling into abeyance as class divisions have grown up, until prestige remains virtually the sole community interest, 51.

--Based upon warlike prowess, physical magnitude and pecuniary traffic of country, 54.

--Interests of the master class are at cross purposes with the fortunes of the common man, 57.

--Value of superiors is a "prestige value," 57.

--The material benefits which this ruling class contribute are: defense against aggression, and promotion of the community's material gain, 60.

--The common defense is a remedy for evils due to the patriotic spirit, 61.

--The common defense the usual blind behind which events are put in train for eventual hostilities, 62.

--All the nations of warring Europe convinced that they are fighting a defensive war, 62.

--Which usually takes the form of a defense of the National Honour, 63.

--Material welfare is of interest to the Dynastic statesman only as it conduces to political success, 64.

--The policy of national economic self-sufficiency, 67.

--The chief material use of patriotism is its use to a limited number of persons in their quest of private gain, 67.

--And has the effect of dividing the nations on lines of rivalry, 76.

CHAPTER III

ON THE CONDITIONS OF A LASTING PEACE 77

The patriotic spirit of modern peoples is the abiding source of contention among nations, 77.

--Hence any calculus of the Chances of Peace will be a reckoning of forces which may be counted on to keep a patriotic nation in an unstable equilibrium of peace, 78.

--The question of peace and war at large is a question of peace and war among the Powers, which are of two contrasted kinds: those which may safely be counted on spontaneously to take the offensive and those which will fight on provocation, 79.

--War not a question of equity but of opportunity, 81.

--The Imperial designs of Germany and Japan as the prospective cause of war, 82.

--Peace can be maintained in two ways: submission to their dominion, or elimination of these two Powers; No middle course open, 84.

--Frame of mind of states; men and popular sentiment in a Dynastic State, 84.

--Information, persuasion and reflection will not subdue national animosities and jealousies; Peoples of Europe are racially homogeneous along lines of climatic latitude, 88.

--But loyalty is a matter of habituation, 89.

--Derivation and current state of German nationalism, 94.

--Contrasted with the animus of the citizens of a commonwealth, 103;--A neutral peace-compact may be practicable in the absence of Germany and Japan, but it has no chance in their presence, 106.

--The national life of Germany: the Intellectuals, 108.

--Summary of chapter, 116.

CHAPTER IV

PEACE WITHOUT HONOUR 118

Submission to the Imperial Power one of the conditions precedent to a peaceful settlement, 118.

--Character of the projected tutelage, 118.

--Life under the Pax Germanica contrasted with the Ottoman and Russian rule, 124.

--China and biological and cultural success, 130.

--Difficulty of non-resistant subjection is of a psychological order, 131.

--Patriotism of the bellicose kind is of the nature of habit, 134.

--And men may divest themselves of it, 140.

--A decay of the bellicose national spirit must be of the negative order, the disuse of the discipline out of which it has arisen, 142.

--Submission to Imperial authorities necessitates abeyance of national pride among the other peoples, 144.

--Pecuniary merits of the projected Imperial dominion, 145.

--Pecuniary class distinctions in the commonwealths and the pecuniary burden on the common man, 150.

--Material conditions of life for the common man under the modern rule of big business, 156.

--The competitive regime, "what the traffic will bear," and the life and labor of the common man, 158.

--Industrial sabotage by businessmen, 165.

--Contrasted with the Imperial usufruct and its material advantages to the common man, 174.

CHAPTER V

PEACE AND NEUTRALITY 178

Personal liberty, not creature comforts, the ulterior springs of action of the common man of the democratic nations, 178.

--No change of spiritual state to be looked for in the life-time of the oncoming generation, 185.

--The Dynastic spirit among the peoples of the Empire will, under the discipline of modern economic conditions, fall into decay, 187.

--Contrast of class divisions in Germany and England, 192.

--National establishments are dependent for their continuance upon preparation for hostilities, 196.

--The time required for the people of the Dynastic States to unlearn their preconceptions will be longer than the interval required for a new onset, 197.

--There can be no neutral course between peace by unconditional surrender and submission or peace by the elimination of Imperial Germany and Japan, 202.

--Peace by submission not practicable for the modern nations, 203.

--Neutralisation of citizenship, 205.

--Spontaneous move in that direction not to be looked for, 213.

--Its chances of success, 219.

--The course of events in America, 221.

CHAPTER VI

ELIMINATION OF THE UNFIT 233

A league of neutrals, its outline, 233.

--Need of security from aggression of Imperial Germany, 234.

--Inclusion of the Imperial States in the league, 237.

--Necessity of elimination of Imperial military clique, 239.

--Necessity of intermeddling in internal affairs of Germany even if not acceptable to the German people, 240.

--Probability of pacific nations taking measures to insure peace, 244-298.

--The British gentleman and his control of the English government, 244.

--The shifting of control out of the hands of the gentleman into those of the underbred common man, 251.

--The war situation and its probable effect on popular habits of thought in England, 252.

--The course of such events and their bearing on the chances of a workable pacific league, 255.

--Conditions precedent to a successful pacific league of neutrals, 258.

--Colonial possessions, 259.

--Neutralisation of trade relations, 263.

--Futility of economic boycott, 266.

--The terms of settlement, 269.

--The effect of the war and the chances of the British people being able to meet the exigencies of peace, 273.

--Summary of the terms of settlement, 280.

--Constitutional monarchies and the British gentlemanly government, 281.

--The American national establishment, a government by businessmen, and its economic policy, 292.

--America and the league, 294.

CHAPTER VII

PEACE AND THE PRICE SYSTEM 299

The different conceptions of peace, 299.

--Psychological effects of the war, 303.

--The handicraft system and the machine industry, and their psychological effect on political preconceptions, 306.

--The machine technology and the decay of patriotic loyalty, 310.

--Summary, 313.

--Ownership and the right of contract, 315.

--Standardised under handicraft system, 319.

--Ownership and the machine industry. 320.

--Business control and sabotage, 322.

--Governments of pacific nations controlled by privileged classes, 326.

--Effect of peace on the economic situation, 328.

--Economic aspects of a regime of peace, especially as related to the development of classes, 330.

--The analogy of the Victorian Peace, 344.

--The case of the American Farmer, 348.

--The leisure class, 350.

--The rising standard of living, 354.

--Culture, 355.

--The eventual cleavage of classes, those who own and those who do not, 360.

--Conditioned by peace at large, 366.

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