Class ^_ Book_ Copyright N°_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE '?&&<$£ THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE BY DR. ALFRED H. FRIED TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LEWIS STILES GANNETT Nefo gorit THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 All rights reserved Jit Copyright, 1916, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1916. Nortoooti IPrega J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. JUN-I 1916 ©CU433224 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES Chapter I. The Causes of the War . . . 1-25 It is imperative that representatives of the va- rious nations meet after this world-catastrophe to discuss means of avoiding its repetition. When we distinguish its underlying causes from its immediate occasions, we find that the present war is the logical outcome of the kind of "peace" which preceded it. Although the industrial and technical advances of the last century have made the world interdependent in a sense previously undreamt of, there has been no political adjustment to the changed conditions. More intimate relations gave increasing opportunity for friction, which, so long as the irrational condition of international disorganization persisted, inevitably led to war. War being inevitable, it became the duty of each nation to seize the most favorable mo- ment. The "peace" was really a state of latent and constantly threatening war. Chapter II. The Age of International Anarchy . 26-53 History, from primitive man to Pan-Americanism, is a record of increasing organization. The final step of world-organization will be a product of association rather than of force. Imperialism, supported by the twin fallacies of Mercantilism and Nationalism, is a false philosophy. It defeats its own endeavor to open markets and give nationality free play. It attempts to achieve national security by competitive arma- ment. But the value of armament is purely relative, and every nation cannot have an armament superior to that of every other. The armament system has indeed led to the system of alliances, a valuable if partial form of association. The fact that this war v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES could not be localized demonstrates the real inter- dependence of the world. Pacifism would achieve national security by realizing this interdependence in political and economic association. The Hague Conferences have made a significant beginning. But international relations must be changed before their work can be effective. The evolution toward inter- nationalism has been further evident in the increas- ing number of general international treaties regulating economic and social matters. The war has demon- strated the necessity of continuing that evolution out of international anarchy into international organization. Chapter III. The War's Lessoxs up to Date . 54-84 The war has demonstrated that armaments are a symptom of international anarchy and cannot insure peace. The cause must be attacked. By their in- tense sensitivity, armaments have actually become a menace. Dilatory treatment of international dis- putes — such as is provided for in the Bryan treaties — will usually obviate war. But the mere provision of such machinery without the will to use it, is inadequate. The war has demonstrated that attempts to human- ize war are futile because self-contradictory. War suspends morality, and cannot be regulated. This war has been more cruel than past wars not because men have been more cruel, but because its area has been so vast and its battlefield so highly civilized. The Hague Conventions, by their qualifications, rec- ognize their own futility. The war has further demonstrated the futility of war as a political instrument, and destroyed the magic of military romance. Finally, it seems to confirm the prophecy of Jean Bloch that a modern world-war would be so tremen- dous that it could only end in exhaustion, and could hardly lead to any decisive result. TABLE OF CONTENTS vii Chapter IV. The Treaty of Peace and Future Peace 85-101 This war really began decades ago. What we called "peace" was latent war. The treaty of peace ^ must establish a durable peace. All the nations are supposedly fighting for a "lasting peace " — not real- izing that there is no such thing as a lasting peace maintained by force. Peace must be cooperative. The old status of perpetual fear and insecurity, de- fended only by armaments, would be intolerable. A different system must be established. There might well be two conferences after the war — one to attend to the mere cessation of hostilities, the other to lay the foundations of a new European organization. In this last the neutrals would join. Chapter V. International Problems . . . 102-133 The pacifist movement suffers from Utopians who fail to realize that social evolution is not mechanical but organic. The organization of nations need not be compul- sory, but should rest upon the interest which the in- dividual states have in cooperation. Secret diplomacy and its elaborate etiquette are outgrown and have become dangerous. An anti- quated conception of sovereignty is one of its most dangerous idols. Diplomacy should be democratized. The system of alliances (balance of power) avoided some wars, but it nourished suspicion and distrust, and thus enhanced the ultimate danger of war. A general European alliance would give real security. There must be a reduction of armament. This cannot occur unless the danger of surprise attack is eliminated by some method of international control. The armament trade should be nationalized. The jingo press is one of the worst dangers of the age, deliberately inciting to war. It must be regu- lated — and chiefly by public opinion. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Hate, the atmosphere which justifies the methods of force, must be done away with. It is not a polit- ical reality, nor has it ever been so permanent as we are prone to imagine. Chapter VI. The Cooperative Union of Europe . 134-145 There is no need of political federation. The bonds of self-interest may be strengthened by eco- nomic association in a Cooperative Union. The Pan- American Union and the Pan-American Bureau are valuable precedents. Unless Europe so organize her- self, America will win an irretrievable advantage. Eventually such a Union would react upon political life, and a World-Union would be the final result. Chapter VII. The Pacifism of Yesterday and of To-morrow 146-157 The titles of Kant's "Eternal Peace" and Bertha von Suttner's "Lay Down Your Arms" have never represented the programme of pacifists, but they have led to much misunderstanding. Pacifists maintain that wars are inevitable so long as international an- archy persists. They foresaw the present war. Nor has pacifism been without its effect upon scientific and popular thought. The future is in our hands. It is for us to determine whether it shall be a rever- sion to barbarism or an era of restoration. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD TO THE AMERICAN EDITION My dear Mr. Gannett : — From the little book of mine which you are presenting in English translation to the American public you have learned how sig- nificant for unfortunate Europe I believe the example of fortunate America to be. I see in the noble achievement of the Pan-American Union the example of organization which the European nations must follow if they wish to avoid in the future such catastrophes as that to which they are now fallen a sacrifice. I am therefore very glad that you are presenting my little book to the reading public of America. Perhaps it will help it to realize the great duty which, after the war, you Americans will have to fulfil toward us Europeans. Perhaps the Americans will see how urgent is their call to assist in the x AUTHORS FOREWORD task of restoring our continent. America's interests too are at stake. For if we in Eu- rope do not succeed in following the American example, there will be danger that the Euro- pean example may be followed in America. All friends of Humanity must strive to guard the world from this danger. I am, respectfully yours, Dr. Alfred H. Fried. Berne, February 24, 1916. TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD Alfred H. Fried was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1864, lived for many years in Berlin, and now makes his home in Berne, Switzerland. His interest in international problems has been lifelong. For decades he has been attacking medievalism and mili- tarism in the German and Austrian Empires. Twenty-five years ago he helped form the German Peace Society. For fifteen years he published the " Friedens-Warte " (Watch-tower of Peace) in Berlin, and since the war he has continued its publication in Zurich. Baroness Bertha von Suttner, author of "Lay Down Your Arms," a book which was said to have stimulated the Czar to call the first Hague Conference, was his intimate friend and a regular contributor to the "Friedens-Warte." In 1894 he translated into German the Rus- sian sociologist Novicow's little masterpiece, "War and its Alleged Benefits," and in 1915, after the outbreak of the war, he brought xii TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD out a second edition of it. A number of other translations and over a score of books stand to his credit, among the latter being a "Handbuch der Friedensbewegung " (1905, 2d edition 1911), "Pan-Amerika" (1910) and "Der Kaiser und die Weltfriede" (1910). "The Restoration of Europe" was published in April, 1915. In 1911 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 1913 the Univer- sity of Leyden, Holland, gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Political Science. What Germans will think about the prob- lem of War and Peace is of tremendous sig- nificance to the world. So long as we lay the entire blame for the war on either one of the leading belligerents, so long as we see a solution in the humiliation of one or the crushing of the other — so long true peace is impossible. The elimination of no single nation as a factor in international affairs will solve the world-problem. The disease is not national ; it is international. The task that will confront the world can never be achieved TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD xiii by one group of allies or in a spirit of hate — it must be a product of international co- operation. Dr. Fried represents a wing of German thought which had been gaining in influence, and which will profit by the revulsion of feeling that will inevitably follow the war. (The author of "J' Accuse" is one of those who had come under his influence.) Dr. Fried speaks as a German thinking internationally, never as a pro-German, lie nowhere con- dones in Germany what he condemns in other nations ; he never seeks excuses — he seeks causes. Dr. Fried does not offer us a panacea to abolish war. He knows there is no panacea. The fundamental problem is for nations to learn to cooperate in little things — and in bigger and bigger things. But the core of the matter is to get the will of the world behind international cooperation. To create this will is the great task of education before us. As Dr. Fried says, "A beautiful treaty for world-organization could be made in xiv TRANSLATOR'S FOREWORD twenty-four hours, if only the will were there to give it life and to enforce it." The present situation is intolerable. A nation is unsafe if unprepared. It is pre- pared only if it has a navy stronger than that of some other nation or nations. It feels unsafe if they are stronger. Human nature being human nature, these others will feel unsafe if it is stronger. They will prepare more in order to achieve safety as they see it. Preparedness means competitive pre- paredness ; and ultimately, inevitably, that means war. Europe has taught us that. Yet a nation is unsafe if unprepared. This is the dilemma in which present-day inter- national anarchy leaves us. What are we going to do about it? Sit by and accept wars as eternally and con- stantly inevitable? That is not the Ameri- can way. Americans admit difficulties, but they face them. So does Dr. Fried. L. S. G. The translator's thanks are due to Dr. John Mez for assistance and suggestions in making this translation. THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE CHAPTER I The Causes of the War When the Titanic sank in April, 191 c 2, our minds were still functioning normally and sanely; to all of us it seemed a disaster that two thousand human beings should be killed by the whim of an iceberg. Sorrow and sym- pathy were not yet limited by national bound- ary-lines. As a logical consequence of so vast a disaster, and of the emotions which it had so deeply stirred, a conference of all the seafaring nations was called to devise means of prevent- ing the repetition of such an accident. When Europe awakens from the convulsions of this war, human life and human happi- ness, the rights of property and the dignity B 1 2 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE of labor, will regain their former status. Just in proportion as the sacrifices have been greater and the destruction more terrible, will the reaction from this world-war be more certain. None but prating fools presume to glorify it. As after the shipwreck, men will consider how the repetition of so horrible an experience may be avoided. We would not be men if we did otherwise. Our minds are not so tragically primitive that we who know the lesser evil to be a preventable acci- dent, would accept the incomparably greater as Fate, inevitable, and to be accepted with resignation. When this continental earthquake, felt the world around, unparalleled in history, involv- ing the destruction of a whole flourishing generation, this cosmic spasm without prece- dent in the past, is at last happily at an end, millions and millions of men resolved and eager to do so, will be free to undertake the restoration of Europe. Theirs will not be the task oi a day. Those who are now in the prime of their powers will give their whole lives to THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 3 it, and those who are children to-day will hardly see its completion. For the rest of us, we who up to the summer of 1914 enjoyed the glowing pageant of life and dared hope to be- hold the fulfilment of the old order of civiliza- tion, for us the world, during this period of reconstruction after the war, will be like a vast work-yard, with whose scaffoldings, rubbish-heaps and piles of material, w T ith whose disorder and disquiet we will have to put up, as long as we live. No mere re- covering of shattered roofs, no mere re-erect- ing and repainting of fagades, will be enough. The foundation was rotten, and that was what caused the catastrophe. This task of restoration must be undertaken at the same time everywhere, and from the very beginning the cooperation of all the nations must be sought. They will have to agree upon the general outline of the plans. The details will take care of themselves. As after the Titanic disaster, representatives of the various governments will be called to- gether to determine the best means of avoid- 4 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE ing another catastrophe like that of 1914-15. The one aim of the work must be the pro- tection of the future. Civilization rests upon the ability of the human intellect to profit from experience. The operation of the complicated apparatus of daily life is made possible by the myriad experiences of the past. And the future may reach a higher level only because each day puts new experiences at its service. We will emerge from this fearful catastrophe, with all its sorrow and misery, richer in experience. It is not to be imagined that we will apply it only in the science of ordnance. J7Y must not allow military sciences to be the only ones to projit by these achievements of human thought. In the midst of this bloody struggle, many have ceased to think of anything else; but mankind has other spheres of activity very close to its heart, and when the agony is over, these other interests will make themselves felt with such primitive force that the threatening artillery-spirit will no longer predominate. The world-war must be utilized by the future THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 5 in other ways — above all else, to teach us how to prevent repetition of such a catas- trophe. Humanity would not be worthy of its name if, after all these sinister experiences, it did not seriously inquire how such horrors were possible, what circumstances contributed to such a consummation, how they can be avoided in the future, and why such pre- ventive agencies as were already established, failed. In the days of so-called "peace" we did not heed the voice of warning, but allowed ourselves to be misled by fools into believing that wars were natural phenomena, similar to earthquakes and thunderstorms. Now that war has seized the very citadel of civiliza- tion we will never again allow ourselves to be so easily deceived. ^Ye are approaching an unprecedented period of criticism, very different from, and superior to, the old scep- ticism. Mankind, especially in Europe, will undertake a fundamental investigation of these things, and will not cease enlightening itself. The time for intellectual jugglers and 6 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE tight-rope walkers is past. We will no longer allow ourselves to be deceived by simple tricks and intellectual sleight-of-hand. The spectre o( the millions slain, the presence oi the million cripples, the smoking ruins o( the towns and cities and the broken links o( commerce will form a picture in whoso frame only men who seek and toll the hard unvar- nished truth can hold a place. They alone will be recognised as able to utilize the lessons of the war for the service of the future. Only earnest students of fact will be able to deter- mine the causes of this catastrophe, and to demonstrate how its repetition may be avoided. In analyzing the real eanses of this war, we must not be content to discover its immedi- ate occasions. Cause and occasion arc two different things. What we saw developing in those eleven historic days (July 26 to August 4, 1914) was only the last phase of a process that had long been maturing. Short- sighted people see the beginning of the con- flict in what was rather its final phase, and THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 7 delude themselves with the naive belief that Europe is burning and bleeding because Serbia would not permit the pari ieipat ion of an Austro-IIungarian oilieial in a judicial investigation, or that the world-war is only an accidentally enlarged punitive expedition for the crime of Serajevo. There are some already who realize that this conception is too naive, and seek for deeper motives. Every day new underlying causes of the war are discovered and displayed — which suffi- ciently proves that imaginations are awake, although there is very little probability to support most of these hypotheses. There can be only one cause, and we are offered a thousand. Such richness is evidence of false thinking. There are too many who seek, not to investigate facts, but to expound, or sometimes to propound, a theory. Since we regard the events of those eleven days as simply phenomena attendant upon the occasion of the war, we need not trouble to discuss them here. Not that such dis- cussion is insignificant — on the contrary. S THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE those diplomatic proceedings possess sympto- matic importance as showing the absurdity of the system which gave rise to them. They demonstrate its perversity and imbecility. But 1 do not think the time has yet eorae when we can discuss them without preju- dice. All the official collections of diplomatic papers make the same mistake. They all prove the absolute fairness and infallibility of one side, and impose the full burden of guilt upon the other. An impartial reader of these varicolored books might form a judgment from them to-day. But who is there in Europe to-day who is impartial? Thorough and unbiassed international discus- sion and objective study will be necessary before any authoritative conclusion can be reached. Even were this possible, we would not thereby have achieved our real purpose. We might learn what roles the individual governments played, might survey the actions of individual statesmen, know who at the last moment tried to postpone the war, and who precipitated it ; but we would still lack THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 9 insight into the motives that influenced the action of the governments, and at a given moment madea given course inevitable. Only when we understand the impersonal elements in this catastrophe, shall we be able to solve the problem of the future. He who has faith in the human race and believes in human progress, may derive some comfort and consolation from an investiga- tion into these deeper and more impersonal Causes. He is spared the shame and horror of believing that a few individuals planned and caused this world-massacre. In perspec- tive we realize that these unfortunates were pulled by unseen strings, that they were ltd and not the leaders, and we rejoice, not so much because they are personally absolved, as because humanity is thereby acquitted of the charge of having given birth to such monsters in human countenance. In this sense it is a service to humanity to turn from the immediate occasions to an investigation of the deeper causes of the world-war. Pacifists, who long ago recognized these 10 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE deeper causes, who prophesied the impending catastrophe and showed how it might have been avoided, have no difficulty in pointing out the ultimate causes of the present massacre. We can put it very briefly : The present war is the logical outcome of the kind of "peace" which preceded it. Was it really a condition of peace that came to an end in those July days of 1014? We must recall the political situation that gave rise to the catastrophe in order to an- swer this question and to understand the con- nection of the war with that "peace." "War is as old as man," we are told. The prophets of eternal war are so far right. But when they begin to shape the future according to the moulds of the past, they leave logic behind. Human nature changes, institutions change, even war changes. These changes produce various results. The rela- tion of the state to war has changed much in the last century. Formerly when a war came to an end, the warring nations entered upon a real peace. The economically hide- THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 11 pendent state recovered in time of peace the condition of order necessary for its continued existence. (After all, peace and order are essentially synonymous.) International con- tacts were not yet developed — they occurred only in war-time. Peace as yet was unin- fluenced by them. But in the last century the world has com- pletely changed. Something that stands above and between the nations has been evolved. The State is no longer an indepen- dent organism. The rapid development of science and industry has begun to weld the states into a complex organism, and to make the formerly independent and self- sufficient units, parts of a higher whole. I know how sceptical some people are to-day in regard to this so-called internationalism. But there is as little reason to believe this move- ment ended as to fancy that a winter forest has lost its capacity to leaf and blossom. We are dealing with facts. The revolution- ary changes in the technical sciences have contracted the world to a degree of which even 12 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE recent generations never dreamed. Men and nations are at eaeh other's doors. All the peoples of the earth have become interde- pendent. He who does not see this to-day. when the war has upset the entire life of the world, must be blind. There is interdepen- dence in material and in spiritual life, in production and exchange, in ideas : even emotions and sensations have become inter- nationalized. The interests of society have become common to such a degree that they can be prosecuted and regulated effectively only by the commonwealth of nations. In countless fields an international and often world-wide cooperation is already successfully established. A tendency toward "symbio- sis" has asserted itself with the force of a natural law. Meanwhile the political relations of nations and the spirit in which they are conducted have not kept pace with this mighty force which the progress of industry has called forth and is daily strengthening. Life has an entirely new orientation. But while the THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 13 conditions of actual life have presented a picture of ever-increasing cooperation, order and organization, international relations have been conducted according to principles pre- served from the era of complete isolation and self-sufficiency. Hence that terrible discord which is the great evil of our age. The nations did not yet realize their actual community of interest. Their myriad inter- ests spread like a network over the entire earth, the farthest corners of which had been brought close to them by the development of industry and transportation. It was but natural that the opportunities for friction were thereby increased, that conflicts of interest, which had formerly been few and isolated, came to be of daily occurrence. The evil lay, not in the new conditions of the time, but in the neglect of political adjust- ment to these conditions, in the conflict between the tendency to interdependence and the old system of force. Friction occurred because of insufficient adjustment to the new 14 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE conditions of life: it might have been re- moved by heeding the world-demand for organization. It arose only because there lingered the tradition of independent action instead of cooperation, because instead o( international organization, international anar- ch]/ had developed. The error was ours ; it was not inherent in the nature of things. With the progress of industry and science in the last generation, this international anarchy increased enormously. As interde- pendence and the struggle for power among men simultaneously developed, the conflict deepened. The national isolation produced in the normal relations between nations an antagonism as sharp and bitter, and as effective of evil, as had been produced by the wars of the past. It was even worse than before. Civilized society — at least as far as the leading states of Europe were concerned — ceased waging war. Wars occurred only on the peripherics of civilization. But for a long time the nations had not been living in real THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 15 peace. They were not nominally at war, and they appeared to be at peace, but in reality the condition was one of latent war, differing from acute war, where the gnus are actually tired, only in degree and not i)i kind. Because the tools of war were at rest. because the swords did not clash nor the cannon thunder, men had eonie to believe that they lived in a society which could dis- pense with force. As a matter of fact, force controlled the situation, and arms, without actually coming into service, decided the course of events. For three decades European society had, without realizing it, lived in this condition, had been controlled by it. had grown into it. And this condition was called peace, because in days gone by. real peace had followed when wars were at an end. Peace is essen- tially order and organization. But organiza- tion within the individual states was no longer sufficient ; it had become equally necessary in the relations between states. There organi- zation was lacking, and hence there could be 16 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE no true peace. It was really latent war, await- ing only the occasion to become acute. That is why I said that this war in which we arc to-Jay engulfed is the logical outcome of the kind of "peace" which preceded it. We did not have true peace. What we are experiencing with horror to-day is only the conclusion of a process to which the present generation had become accustomed, the in- evitable outcome of that condition of latent war which grew out of the lack of human adjustment to the natural course of evolution, and made anarchy dominant. Once we realize the essential identity of war and such "peace." once we understand that the present war is but the logical out- come of such "peace." then we approach the fundamental causes of the world-war. Pacifism, which public opinion, with amus- ing naivete, has declared a failure, because the outbreak of hostilities supposedly refuted its teachings, has in reality been fully justified by the war. Because we saw that war was bound to result from this condition of national THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 17 isolation, we worked, warned and sought to develop the forces of organization as a pre- ventive. We had no illusions; we were engaged in the struggle against a catastrophe which we clearly foresaw, when it broke upon ns. We never doubted that the opposing forces were stronger. Just because we knew them to be stronger, we tried to strengthen the forces working for order. We saw the war coming. In an article published in 1908 entitled "The Foundations of Revolutionary (/.<., Constructive) Paci- fism, " I pointed out that "in this condition (of anarchy and isolation) each nation must count every other its enemy, every advance of one people means disaster for another, the welfare of one the loss of another. All forces work against each other, and out of the confusion there is often no way of escape except explosion, no sal rat ion except through the catastrophe of war. War may thus be a necessity because it liberates, because it eliminates conditions which have become in- tolerable, because it makes a way out ; in 18 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE this case war means liberation and is actually rational. This, however, implies that war is only so long a necessity, so long a liberating force, so long a rational recourse, as the condi- tions which produce it arc irrational. It does liberate when the nations have found no escape through reason from the abnormal conditions in which they are living to-day. It is necessary as long as irrationality ham- pers the normal development of life. . . . War is rational only as long as the conditions of international society arc irrational." 1 further pointed out that the spontaneous explosion of accumulated tension-forces was no longer the greatest danger, since the forces of increasing organization were already working toward an equilibrium. To me the real peril lay in the fact that "the men who conduct the affairs of state, not recognizing this process, might still fear an explosion a fid therefore might deliberately attempt to anticipate it. The fear of being suffocated in the prevailing international anarchy is the chief cause of war to-dai/. For in this condition o( disorder the THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 10 normal activity or development of one state threatens another with loss of breathing space and elbow-room. Naturally this other state, anxious for its own future, or (earing that its own normal development will be hampered, will deliberately make war before it comes to spontaneous explosion, in the hope that by deliberate aggression, by seizing the opportune moment, it may create conditions favorable to itself in the conflict." This characterization of European condi- tions was written seven years ago, immediately after the second Hague Conference. We pacifists, therefore, can hardly be accused of having been misled by illusions or sur- prised by the events of the summer of 1914. On the contrary, things have taken exactly the course which our understanding of the causes had led us to fear. We differ from others only in that we sought out and pointed out by what means the calamity might have been avoided. But our efforts did not have the success they merited. The forces working for organization, which we had awakened 20 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE and unceasingly sought to strengthen, were too weak ; and so, as we had predicted, the explosion came. Let us therefore repeat : This world-war is the logical outcome of the kind of peace which preceded it. Its ultimate causes are not to be found in the plans or intrigues of individual governments or diplo- mats, but in that state of international anarchy which determined their plans and intrigues, and which finally reached a moment of tension when explosion was inevitable. Although the sins of European diplomacy in those eleven days were many, and although a little more determination might have pre- vented this war, just as worse crises had been passed in recent years, we must admit that many of the negotiations which without this insight into their deeper motives appear in- comprehensible and almost criminal, are thus quite explicable. European diplomacy in the summer of 1914 was not guided by the thought of any form of European federation. It was only too far removed from the condition of inter- THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 21 national organization which, in the article written in 1908 to which I have already re- ferred, I defined as a system of economic forces in which "the parts combine in a higher whole, the organs unite to form an organism, and the forces work together for mediation and cooperation" Nothing like that existed last summer. European diplo- macy was entirely under the influence of that international anarchy described above, in which "every advance of one people means disaster for another," in which explosion seems a blessed relief from tension, and in which it may appear wise precaution to cause such an explosion by deliberate ag- gression. Thus we can readily understand how the Austro-Hungarian monarchy saw a danger to its own vital interests in the struggle for national expansion on the part of its southern neighbor. It feared the seizure of some of its own territory and the loss of some of its population. In view of the entire lack of international organization in Europe, we can : r 1 1 E B K STO U ATI N F E 13 R P E perhaps understand the Austrian severity of procedure and her refusal to accept any pro- posals of mediation — all the more when we remember that the dogma of the supposed imminent decline oi the Habsburg monarchy made it imperative for her to show vigorous signs of life. But we can also understand that the same disorganization which led Austria -Hungary to adopt such a course, made it equally necessary for Russia to regard the success of such a policy as a threat to herself. Since in this anarchy "the advance of one people means disaster for another," the suc- cess of Austria -Hungary on the Balkan Pen- insula necessarily — always from the point of view of the international anarchy — im- plied defeat for Russia. We can also under- stand that Germany must fear, in a defeat of her ally by Russia, a defeat for herself. And finally England's attitude can be ex- plained on the same principle — a German defeat of Russia and France would have to be conceived as defeat for England. THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 23 If the prevailing international disorganiza- tion explains the confused character of the negotiations, il also explains why they were so hurried — and it was really this harry which rendered futile the opposing stand of the forces for peace. The disorganized state of affairs was unquestionably the cause of that over- anna men t which was supposed to be the only protection against the catastrophe. Unfor- tunately, the world-catastrophe was required to prove that this idea o( defence was illusory, as indeed all reasoning based on anarchy must be. The armaments themselves made the collapse inevitable. Their steady increase made them more and more sensitive. Their effect iveness could be distinctly increased by redistributions and improvements in the sys- tem of transportation. Finally this alleged "guarantee of peace/' in logical demonstra- tion of its unfitness, became so extremely sensitive that a start of only twenty-four hours in the mobilization of one state ap- peared an irretrievable disadvantage to the other. The same international anarchy ex- 84 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE plains Germany's twelve-hour ultimatum to Russia, with all its fearful consequences. We can understand now why the meas- ures rushed through because of this dis- organization led the German government to suspect that those hurried proceedings were only the last steps in a plot to strangle her, so that she found herself in the position I have described where "a state, anxious for its own future, fearing that its own normal development will be hampered, will deliber- ately make war before it comes to spontane- ous explosion, in the hope that by deliberate aggression, by seizing the opportune moment, it may create conditions favorable to itself in the conflict." We may grant that Edward VI I sincerely strove to establish European peace upon a tinner basis; and yet, in view of the prevailing international disorganiza- tion, we cannot blame the German statesmen if they considered the fulfilment of his desires a menace to Germany, increasing the danger of her loss of "breathing-space and elbow- room." THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 25 This explains many of the negotiations and decisions of those unhappy eleven days. Of course it does not justify them. He who is convinced that health and salvation can come to this suffering continent only through world-organization, and who believes such organization already possible, must regard those actions — unless so explained — as criminal madness. But he must admit that the international anarchy with its false as- sumptions did lead inevitably to the dan- gerous ideas, conclusions and actions which determined the attitude of statesmen, and were the underlying causes of the world-war. CHAPTEB 11 The A>ge or [international A^narchi The fanatics of force deny that the process of international organization is approaching its realisation and that there exists a natural tendency to cooperation. They justify their attitude with all sorts of arguments based upon their own peculiar philosophy. They kanize the teachings of history they would conduct the affairs of to-day according to precepts handed down from the time of Charlemagne. But the right of the past can no longer be right in a present that is com- pletely changed. The change has been so unprecedentedly rapid and revolutionary that the militarists cannot realize that not even the immediate past ean give US rules of action for the present. Psychologically and tech- nologically, even the age of Bismarck lies far behind us. INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 37 They see in history nothing but the decisions of force, entirely overlooking the fact that the whole course of world-history is a process of constantly increasing organization, that an uninterrupted line of progress loads from isolated prim it ire man up to modern Pan- Americanism. They do not realize that this evolution of the human race in history is simply the expression of a universal natural law that leads from chaos to world-organiza- tion as from cell to Homo Sapiens. Evolu- tion is always the outcome of association ami organization. But oven those who begin to understand this process, ami modify their philosophy ac- cordingly, attempt to prove that the various steps toward organization in the past could not have been taken without the use of force. They conclude that future progress in human organization can take place only by war and subjugation. To the creation oi the world- state they would apply the experiences of the age when nations were in the making, entirely neglecting the changed conditions and the 28 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE difference in purpose. Even the methods of nation-building have been modified. The crude method of subjugation is replaced in modern history by such federative associa- tion as we see in the United States of America or in the German Empire. Why should the world-state, i.e., the political adaptation of all the nations to the world-tendency tow- ards interdependence, be created by that most impractical method, subjugation — espe- cially when the conditions have so entirely changed? Here the method of subjugation, commonly known as Imperialism, 1 is futile. For it is based on the attempt to assure the world-interests of the individual state, and upon the will of each state to maintain itself in the world-competition. Imperialism at- tempts to achieve its aims clumsily, by a policy of force, with the desire to reap for a single state all the benefits of world-or- ganization. It would impose order upon the world instead of attaining it by mutual 1 Dr. John Mez suggests that perhaps Dr. Fried consistently uses the word Imperialismus instead of Militarismus because of the censorship. — Tr. INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 29 agreement. The method of force must neces- sarily come to grief because the different Imperialist ambitions conflict, and hence it hinders rather than helps the development of the desired order and stability. Ultimately the nations will have to come to an agree- ment. For Imperialism means not only the will to world-power on the part of one state, but the firm and united opposition of all the other states which are thereby menaced. The only way in which it can work toward organization is by organizing opposition. A united opposition will arise against any state whose Imperialist policy menaces other states. It will play the part of the nucleus whose friction organizes the cell. The fallacy of Imperialism is shown by its very foundations — Mercantilism and Na- tionalism. The advocates of force justify their methods by pointing out the necessity of providing markets for home products. But this neces- sity results from the lack of world-organiza- tion and the consequent attempt of each 30 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE state to assure these conditions of life for itself alone, without consideration of the vital rights of others. When political organization of the world shall open its markets to all the members of the world-state, there will no longer be any necessity for their violent ap- propriation by any one member. Thus Impe- rialism is compelled to advocate force for a goal which could be attained without force were it not that Imperialism itself prevents such organization. Such a circle of errors is evidence of the unfitness of the method. It is in commerce, in the exchange of goods (the most conspicuous characteristic of mod- ern organization), that international inter- dependence is most obvious. Thanks to our intellectual progress as expressed in industrial and technical development, we are to-day in a position to use the prod- ucts of the entire earth in any part of the earth and to put the highest products of technical skill and adaptation in any one place to service in all other places. World- commerce makes the technical skill which INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 31 centuries have developed in any one part of the earth serviceable in all other regions. To manufacture goods may take a long time, but by modern methods of transportation they are rapidly distributed, even to those who have given no time to their production. By exchange we anticipate our own develop- ment. What a tremendous factor for organi- zation ! With its aid we transcend thousands of miles, and centuries as well — both space and time. But this exchange of goods brings with it not only friendly relations and contacts, but friction as well — more and greater friction than when nations were more isolated. What does the Imperialist conclude? That com- merce is not an agency for peace but a cause of war ! It is the false conclusion of the near-sighted. War is not caused by com- merce, but by the maladaptation of political relations to the neiv conditions created by world- commerce. Commerce has increased and ex- tended the contacts and relationships — and these require organization far more than ever 38 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE before. Given world-organization, the fric- tion would cease, or, if it continued, it would be settled not by armed conflict but by treaty. Imperialism justifies itself by the alleged inevitability of war on account of these com- mercial conflicts. What they really demon- strate is the irrationality and harmfulness of Imperialism. The other false buttress of Imperialism is Nationalism. As in Mercantilism, so in Nationalism, Imperialism perpetuates an evil, which it alone makes an evil. The individual states were established by Nationalism. But because Nationalism has the peculiarity of undermining the inner life of nations and of developing embittered antagonisms between nations, it is one of the chief hindrances to internationalism. Essen- tially it too is characterised by a desire for association, but for a too limited form of association. It emphasizes certain super- ficialities, which it misrepresents as the high- est ideals of humanity. Behind such asso- ciation is the desire to repulse all that is INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 88 outwardly different* Only the most primitive Stage oi organization is achieved through antagonism. There the intellect is not the decisive factor, not the will to progress, but an instinctive association against anything external. In this lower stage of evolution solidarity is achieved by means of hostility instead of reconciliation. Thus Nationalism is an instrument created by disorganization, and can serve only disorganization. The one- sided emphasis of Nationalism creates that very oppression of the nation which it is supposed to remove. Only by the political organization of all mankind can each nation attain its full freedom and become an active agent of human progress. Imperialism, founded on Nationalism, obstructs such free development of the nation. Its fundamental principles of oppression and violent annexa- tion are inherently opposed to national equal- ity and to national greatness. Here again it proves to be the great obstacle in the way of natural evolution. Imperialism does not change the final 34 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE course of world-history, but for a time it does distort and mislead human thought. It pre- vents the recognition of natural tendencies, and forces humanity with infinite toil and suffering to fight its way back from the side- paths into which it had been misled, on to the highroad of true social progress. It destroys the life of generations. With tre- mendous industry its apostles seek to give it a scientific political basis. The great teachings of Darwin, which promised such a wonderful insight into the secret processes of nature, have been distorted by the Im- perialists and misapplied to politics. In transferring the doctrine of the Struggle for Existence of the various species to the entirely different struggle of social organizations within a species, they made a fatal error. Novicow, 1 who was the first to refute these misconcep- tions, has shown that struggle, which is universal among stars, animals, plants and men, follows different methods in each case. 1 Novicow's thought has recently been made available in English in George Nasmyth's " Social Progress and the Darwinian Theory " (Putnams, 1916). INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 35 The stars attract matter ; the stronger animal eats the weaker, and by digestion transforms it into a part of its own self. But one celes- tial body cannot chew another, nor can a lion attract cells away from an antelope. The astronomic struggle is different from the biological, and so is the sociological. The fact that the lion tears open the antelope does not imply that the massacre of the popu- lation of one state by that of another is a natural law. But Imperialism leads us into just such a sea of error. It breeds racial conceit and turns a noble patriotism into Chauvinism. The insanest product of Imperialism is the system of competitive armament which has characterized the last generation. Here again an institution quite justifiable in itself has been transformed and caricatured. There can be no rational objection if a group of men seek to protect their peculiar institutions by measures which enable them to repel attacks from without. Even when the world- state is completely organized, some form of 86 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE military force may still be necessary, just as the police persist in the individual states and eities. The irrationality of the present system consists in the fact that Imperialism has made an instrument intended for defence into a means of realizing Imperialist ambi- tions of aggression and subjugation. This altered purpose makes armaments relative and always incomplete because their true purpose is never defined. They have ceased to be merely defensive. They have become a means for attaining certain Imperialist ends. Thus military safety is no longer dependent upon the attainment of a certain absolute strength, determined by the defen- sive needs of the state, but on the relation of one state's armament to that of others. The value of armament came to depend solely upon its permanent superiority to that of otlier nations. An uninterrupted increase of armament became imperative in the end- less pursuit of that unattainable Utopia. It was an attempt to square a circle. The reciprocal increase permitted no pause, but INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 37 became Faster and madder every day. For it is inherent in the system of armament that the protection which it gives a state is greater the more that state menaces other states. So long as international anarchy persists, armament protects only so long as it menaces, and the tendency of Imperialism is to accen- tuate its menacing character. But since this menace forces other states to increase their measures of protection, the whole system of competitive armament came to resemble a great juggernaut which in its course destroys the whole civilization of the nations which are seeking national " security. " The sell- contradiction of international anarchy could not be shown more clearly than by this unrea- sonable system of competitive armament. In contrast to organization — the natural system of conservation of energy — it is the unnat- ural high-water mark of wasted energy. Nevertheless, here as everywhere, the natural tendency to association, the will to reason in the midst of madness, can be dis- covered in the attempt to attain some per- 38 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE manency despite the increasing friction and the threatening conflicts. The tremendous expenditure on armament made it possible to overcome some of the frictions caused by world-commerce, simply by causing fear that these huge instruments might be used. Thus they actually worked for the peaceful settle- ment of difficulties — a result which might have been attained by organization with less effort and more certainty. But in still another fashion the armament system shows the influence of the tendency to interdependence. Imperialism, in seeking world-domination, saw the possibility of a world of united enemies. Competitive arma- ment offered no relief for such a predicament. A state may be convinced that it can become stronger than one other, or than a group of other states, but even this insanity could not deceive it into believing that it could be stronger than all the others put together. So they sought a partial form of association through alliances, — partly to strengthen themselves, partly with the hidden purpose INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 39 of reducing the power of their opponents by limiting their possibilities of alliance. Those were the first faltering baby-steps towards international organization. But they suffered from the fact that they were made uncon- sciously, without a full recognition of cause and purpose, experimentally and in the dark, under mechanical compulsion. Thus it hap- pened that in recent years governments sometimes justified their increases of arma- ments by the necessity of fulfilling obligations to their allies. A dim suspicion that associa- tion was the way out of anarchy seemed to prevail, but the courage to take the decisive step was lacking. They stopped half way, and that half-work is taking its revenge to-day. The system of alliances which might have been so noble a beginning, led to the world- catastrophe. But is not even this world-war a proof of the existence of a tendency to interdepen- dence? It was not the system of alliances alone that allowed a local dispute to grow into a conflict of all the great powers of 40 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE Europe. It was that community of interests which makes all the nations fellow -sufferers in every war on the surface o( the earth. Bound by commerce and trade, they are also fellows in the convulsions of international anarchy. Not only the warring nations, but the so-called neutrals as well, are fellow- fighters, if without direct use of arms; in any ease they are fellow-sutierers. This loeal conflict grown into a world-war must prove to the blindest what a stage of world-organisa- tion has already been attained. Misery and sorrow, death and destruction, have spread over every part of the earth, just because the normal eourse of life was upset at one point. The cry uttered at the beginning of the Austro-Serbiau conflict in 1909, "Localize the conflict," is a telling witness of the non- reeognition of the change which had come over politieal relationships. The conflict could not be loealized. The only alternative to a peaceful settlement was a European war, a world-eatastrophe. Ami the fact that laborers in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro ami South INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 41 Australia arc unemployed and suffering to- day, 1 is proof that the Serbian idea of national expansion was more important to them and less remote than they had imagined. The world-war is thus a new proof of the inter- dependence of humanity and a demonstration of the foolishness of the methods of the past. Even in this dark cup there is a gleam of light. Such glints of light give some comfort. They indicate how blindly mankind is driven, how 7 little we control the course of evolution. As long as men are deceived by such false teachings as Imperialism, they will continue to play this unworthy role. Not until we open our eyes and cast aside these errors, will humanity tread the path of progress with the imperishable genius of its kind. We have recognized international anarchy as the result of the maladaptation of J political institutions to the natural tendency of human groups to become interdependent. 1 Written early in 1015. — Tr. 42 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE Imperialism is the false instrument by which men, trusting to the experiences of a pre- vious period of history, have sought to remedy this situation. Consequently, instead of cooperating by mutual agreement, they have had recourse to brute force, and have been driven into that mad rivalry in arma- ment which led to this world-war. Imperialism still prevails, but its sway is no longer undisputed. One group has recog- nized the direction of evolution, has seen the evil of international anarchy and analyzed its causes, and has pointed out by what means this greatest evil of humanity can be done away with. Pacifism has arisen to oppose Imperialism; it is gaining ground and has begun to use its influence to adapt the political relations of states to their natural tendencies. The system of force still dominates, but it has met worthy opposition. Pacifism has not been without influence. The catastrophe does not prove that pacifism was wrong, but that it was not sufficiently influential. The war, demonstrating as it does the failure of INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 43 Imperialism, will undoubtedly increase the prestige of pacifism. Pacifism had already stirred the will to international organization. It had already created institutions to serve this organization. A tremendous campaign was in progress the world over. The contest between the sup- porters of the old philosophy of force and the new school of thought was uninterrupted. Step by step the apostles of force and the believers in anarchy were driven back. They fought with the lowest weapons of calumny, insult and scorn. They could not refute the pacifist position, so they tried to dis- credit it. Such methods cannot bring per- manent success. The principles of pacifism spread. The institutions of the Hague, so laughed at by the militarists, — just as robber knights once scoffed at the " Truce of God," — are a valuable and visible sign of pacifist progress. True, to-day, amid the thunder of cannons, he who makes merry over the empty Palace of Peace by the sand-dunes of Scheveningen, 44 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE is sure of the applause of the mob. But jests cannot destroy such a work. The Mausers, the submarines and the dread- noughts plying their trade in the neighborhood of the Palace of Peace seem more important to-day, but they are not ! The Hague Palace and the instruments of destruction are products of the same human genius, but the latter are products o( human misunderstanding, the former of a logical recognition of things as they are. The oiu 4 serves destruction, the other conservation and construction. It is easy to explain why the cannon and torpedoes are more effective to- day. They are ready for use, and the will to use them is behind them. The work o( the Hague is not yet complete; the will to use it does not yet prevail. But it requires only that mankind shall so will, and the machin- ery of the Hague will function as effectively as do the marvels of military technique to-day, and these in turn will be as dumb and powerless as is now the Palace mi the coast of Holland. The tool can never complete the INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 45 deed without the human will behind it. To- day that will is behind the tools of militarism. But the battle is on to put that will behind the instruments of law and order. The Hague Conventions are one product of this battle. Tiny are a compromise be- tween the old and the new. The representa- tives of the old could not prevent their being made — they were compelled to agree to that; but they prevented their receiving binding force. The Hague treaties are volun- tary rather than compulsory, recommenda- tions rather than obligations, more apparent than real. In so far the believers in force triumphed. To-day they laugh scornfully because those Conventions have broken down. Their attitude shows the character of the opposition which pacifism has to meet. They who were themselves the cause of that weak- ness, now seek to prove by that weakness the untenability of pacifism. That is not fighting fairly. None knew better than the pacifists what was to be expected from those agreements. 46 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE We fully realized they could not always prevent war. We regarded them rather as a moral achievement. In this compromise with the believers in force, we saw only the first victory of our point of view over that of law- lessness. We knew that so long as there was no international organization, war. which we regarded as an explosion of force, — whether spontaneous or deliberate, — could not be prevented by rational measures, be- cause the conflict was fundamentally irra- tional. We knew that in the chaotic condi- tions of international life, rational methods of settlement would have no chance if the slightest eloak of legal just itieat ion could be thrown over the use of force -as it almost always can be. Since such decorative and modest cloaks of legality have nothing what- ever to do with the essential conflicts, legal institutions could, under the circumstances, have no importance. Only when the nations did not want war. because the dispute seemed too unimportant, or because the general situa- tion was unfavorable, did they avail them- INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 47 selves of the institutions which pacifism had created. The immediate causes of the present war obviously could have been settled by Legal means if all the participants had wished it. But, as we saw in the first chapter, those immediate causes were merely the super- ficial occasion of the war; the war in reality was the final stage in a long series of conflicts of interest caused by international anarchy. Such conflicts cannot be settled by Hague Conventions. This, however, does not prove the Hague Conventions superfluous. It only proves that such conflicts cannot be abolished by a mere recommendation to use other means of settle- ment. Just as force is the product of anarchy, so law is the product of organization. If the conflicts are to be settled by law instead of by war, their character must be modified. When international law takes the place of inter- national lawlessness, international conflicts will lose their menacing character, and will be settled by law. That is where the task of pacifism begins. When this fundamental 4S I'll E R E S r B A T 1 N V E DRO P E change in international relations has taken plaee. the work at the Hague will bear fruit. Then the will of man. the will to establish the reign of law. will animate those technical agreements, and give them life. Then their great import anee will be appreciated. To wrest them from the fanatics of force was the first great victory. Let them laugh at the empty Palace of Peace! They hate that building and the treaties behind it. It can- not put the cannon to sleep, but its very existence is a crying protest against the work o( cannons a protest that will yet awaken mankind ami destroy the foundations of the whole system of force. From that quiet building there goes forth a warning that will become dangerous to anarchy and its defenders. The achievements of the Hague are not the only comforting evidence that the sway of militaristic Imperialism is no longer un- opposed. 1 have emphasised them only because they are the most visible sign of the opposing forces of paeitism. and the most INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 49 immediate moans of avoiding the resort to force. Civilization on the eve of war was far more closely knit than most of us realized, Imperialism, the child of anarchy, was still the stronger force, but the evolution toward community of interest and action had made vast progress. The war lias produced an attitude of mind which has made it customary to speak of international treaties and inter- national cooperation with scornful superiority, and to consider effort spent on them a waste of energy. Such a point of view is not to be taken seriously ; it will disappear after the war as the snow wastes under the spring sun. For these things are no longer mere ideas or Utopian efforts; they are hard facts. To-day, in the midst of a war which has broken all bonds, there are some who laugh at international treaties. Yet it would be hard to imagine a world without treaties. After all, it is a treaty for which this war is being fought, and all the bloody sacrifice is for its sake. When the fever is past, there will surely be a new and higher appreciation 50 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE of the value of treaties; and the work of international cooperation, interrupted on the 28th of July, 1914, will be resumed. We shall realize that only the inadequate strength of the treaties, and the insufficient recognition of their value to humanity, precipitated the catastrophe. Perhaps we shall remember that it was the infraction of the Treaty of Berlin by one of the parties to it acting without the consent of the others, that brought on the whole miserable business, after that treaty had for a generation protected Europe from its most serious sources of danger. Internationalism long ago ceased to be a mere idea. It had already exercised an appre- ciable influence on the life of nations, and established important precedents which gave ground for hope that the nations would adapt their political relations to the natural evo- lution toward a World-State. An interna- tional organization cannot be created, as are other political bodies, by a single deed of force. It must come gradually. The development of international cooperation INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 51 demonstrates the progress which had already been made. In other works * I have shown how that evolution was progressing in spite of the opposition of the governments. New interests gave a new meaning to old treaties. Common interests became more important than individual. Bipartite treaties were re- placed by general agreements, and these dealt less with political matters than with the regulation of general commerce and trans- portation. The number of international treaties sanctioning violent aggression steadily decreased, while those which provided by general agreement for the peaceful conquest of markets and avenues of trade became more and more frequent. Finally treaties were signed which, instead of merely regulating the conditions existing after a war, were actually intended to prevent war. That was the case at both Hague Conferences, in 1899 and in 1907. Gradually an actual international administra- tion was developed, and the necessary machin- 1 See, among others, "Handbuch der Friedensbewegung," 2d edition, vol. 1, pp. 118 sqq. V 52 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE ery provided for. Between 1874 and 1909 no less than eighty-six such international agree- ments were made. The increasing number and importance of the international conferences is an eloquent witness to the development of international organization. From the Con- gress of Vienna (1815) to 1910 one hundred and fifty-eight such conferences were held. Ten of these came in the first half of the last century, ninety-nine in the second half, and in the first ten years of the present century, there were forty-nine. The demand for organization cannot be more eloquently demonstrated. Formerly such conferences devoted themselves solely to the settlement of the aftermath of war (so the great Con- gresses of Miinster, Utrecht and Vienna) ; but since the Congress of Vienna only two of these conferences (Paris 1856 and Berlin 1878) have been concerned with past wars, while all the others have had to do with the international regulation of economic, scientific and social affairs. Their character is indicative of the tendency to international organization. INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY 53 These facts have not been without influ- ence on politics. Treaties became more and more the backbone and scaffolding of the society of nations that was coming into being. The world-war has rather affirmed than dis- proved this. Were it not that the forces of international anarchy still held the upper hand, this scaffolding would have become stronger and stronger until eventually it was unshakable. But the forces were uneven. The leading spirits did not yet understand the new phenomena and the new necessities. Mil- itaristic ideas triumphed ; the forces of anarchy were still in the ascendency. So, quite logi- cally, the world came to that disaster which to- day appalls us. This must be the high-water mark of anarchy. A change in international relations has become an imperative necessity. Humanity has before itself the task of shap- ing a future worthier of itself. Such hopes have been awakened by this war. We begin to see how it has destroyed old prejudices and laid bare old errors, how drastically it has exposed false conclusions and taught new lessons. CHAPTER III The War's Lessons up to Date As I write, the war is still in progress. When it is ended, the military strategists will, as after every previous war, study it and pre- pare to use its lessons for future wars. It is a doubtful undertaking at best, for there is no sphere of human activity so subject to revolu- tionary technical changes as warfare, and the experience of the present is worth little for the future. Because of the rapid evolution of military technique we can, with General von der Goltz, call the battle of the future the riddle of the Sphinx. Every war teaches new technical lessons. But there are other points of view from which war is just as sig- nificant. As a social phenomenon it is of such tremendous importance that its investigation must not be left to military men, who in reality are only interested in its actual conduct. 54 WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 55 It must be studied from a sociological view- point with the express purpose of discovering how to avoid such catastrophes in the future. We need not wait until hostilities cease. Not even then will all the sociological data of the war be at hand. Data will continue to stream in long after the treaty of peace is signed, and some of the most important will come last. The American biologist, David Starr Jordan, rightly emphasized Benjamin Franklin's words, "Wars are not paid for in war-time; the bill comes later." It will be years before all the social effects of this war will be visible. Hence it is our duty to study its lessons while it is still in progress. We cannot postpone its discussion to that distant time when all the material will be available. It is the more important that we fulfil this duty because our purpose is not to wage, but to prevent, future wars. Such a task cannot be begun too soon. In fact, the course of this war, and especially its beginning, offers rich material which can, and indeed must, be evaluated immediately, 56 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE if our ideas of European restoration arc to be realized. I begin with that problem which the war has proved to be of primary importance — the problem of armament*. In the previous chapter I tried to show- that the degeneration of the system of arma- ments demonstrated the inefficiency of inter- national anarchy. Armaments, although in- tended for protection, can protect only by menacing others, and these others are forced to adopt counter-measures which in turn menace that state which first sought protec- tion in armament. This reaction led to a competition in armaments which finally became economically intolerable without at- taining the security at which it aimed. Ar- maments have proved themselves deceptive instruments of Imperialism. They give no state a permanent superiority, but merely produce a continuous restlessness and pal- pitation in all: and such a situation is in- tolerable in the long run. Pacifism has consistently pointed out the WARS LESSONS UP TO DATE 57 fallacy of competitive preparedness, and has emphatically rejected the supposition that it insured peace. Being a symptom of law- lessness, armaments could never secure genuine peace ; at most they have lengthened the period between wars and delayed the conversion of "latent" wars into acute, thus maintaining a condition which has nothing in common with that true peace to which we have looked forward. Understanding the causes of this phenomenon, we knew the evil could not be removed by any mere superficial attack, but that its causes must be eliminated — that is, law must be substituted for force. We have often been accused of demanding immediate disarmament, but the serious litera- ture of pacifism contained no such suggestion. "The road to reduction of armaments is by way of international organization. Arma- ments will disappear of themselves as this organization develops." So I wrote in 1908 in "The Foundations of Revolutionary Paci- fism." Positive pacifist effort was directed not against the symptom (armament), but 58 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE against its causes. Continuous attention to the development of international cooperation, and its conscious furtherance, has always seemed to us the most effective way to elimi- nate this destructive competition in arma- ments. That no other kind of development could bring true peace, that it alone could give security, was clear to us from the beginning. We knew that armament was no peace insurance. In all our writings and at all our congresses we emphasized the fact that arma- ment w T as not a reliable instrument to main- tain even that condition of latent war which most people had become accustomed to call peace. The outbreak of this world-war has shown how foolish was the confidence placed in armaments by the fanatics of force. Their false slogan, "Si vis pacem, para bellum," has proved a hopeless delusion ; it was the armaments themselves which finally made war inevitable. We had prepared for war, and our instruments of warfare were so sensi- tive that they almost fired themselves. WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 59 The war has proved what a menace to peace these armaments had come to be. Pacifist effort was directed to lessening the danger of the conflicts to which inter- national anarchy gave rise, by allowing time for the momentary excitement of the masses and their leaders to die down, thus assuring a calm and rational discussion of the situation. Nothing is more favorable to an explosion of force than the excitement of impending con- flict. Machinery was established providing for dilatory treatment of all severe international disputes, before they could lead to an open conflict of arms. It was from such considera- tions that the First Hague Conference created the International Commission of Inquiry, which was further developed at the Second Conference. The provision referred to, in Article 9 of the "Convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes," reads, "In disputes of an international nature involving neither honor nor vital interests, and arising from a difference of opinion on points of fact, the 60 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE contracting powers deem it expedient and desirable that the parties who have not been able to come to an agreement by means of diplomacy, should, as far as circumstances allow, institute an international commission of inquiry, to facilitate a solution of these disputes by elucidating the facts by means of an impartial and conscientious investiga- tion." It is easy to see how this provision has been qualified and weakened by the traditional spirit of disorganization. It concerns only "disputes involving neither honor nor vital interests." Each state is to define these terms for itself. Even then thev dared not recommend the method, but confined them- selves to "deeming" it "expedient and desir- able, " and did not consider its application except "as far as circumstances allow." These limitations are the concessions which the new public mind had to make to the old conceptions of diplomats at the Hague Con- ferences. But despite these limitations, the Conven- WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 61 tion has already had one great success. In the delicate Hull affair, when the departing Russian Baltic fleet fired on English fishing smacks (1904), when the war-spirit on the streets of London rose to fever-heat, a peaceful solution was attained by referring the matter to an International Commission of Inquiry, — simply because the excitement of the moment was thus allayed. There are of course some who will seek to minimize that occasion. Those who take the trouble to go through the daily papers of that time will realize that the dispute, concerning as it did both the "honor and the vital interests" of the participants, was considered very likely to lead to war. It aroused the public more, and seemed more serious, than the dispute which grew into the present war. The treaties which Mr. Bryan, then American Secretary of State, offered to all the countries of the world in 1913 are an extension of this idea of dilatory treatment. Contrary to the general belief, they were not arbitration treaties, but treaties for the "prevention of war. 62 THE RESTORATION OF EUROTE The contracting parties pledged themselves to refer any dispute to an international com- mission of inquiry before going to war. This commission may postpone its report for a year. After it has reported, the states are free to decide whether they will go to war or settle the matter peacefully. 1 But it is quite clear that after a year's delay no dispute will lead to war. That is the fundamental pur- pose of those treaties. Thirty-four states have assented to them in principle, and at the end of 1914 the United States had signed such treaties with eighteen governments, among them the European countries, Great Britain, 1 Article I of the Anglo-American treaty reads : "The High Contracting Parties agree that all disputes between them of every nature whatsoever, to the settlement of which previous arbitration treaties or agreements do not apply in their terms or are not applied in fact, shall, when diplomatic methods of adjustment have failed, be referred for investigation and report to a permanent International Commission, to be constituted in the manner prescribed in the next succeeding article ; and they agree not to declare war or to begin hostilities during such investigation and before the report is submitted." From Article 3 : " The report of the International Commission shall be completed within one year after the date on which it shall declare its investiga- tion to have begun, unless the High Contracting Parties shall limit or extend the time by mutual agreement." WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 63 France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Holland. There can be no doubt that dilatory treat- ment of this sort could have settled the dispute which led to this war, had use been made of the machinery of the Hague Conventions established for that very purpose. But the provision of the Hague Conference in regard to a Commission of Investigation has remained a scrap of paper for the same reason which was responsible for the failure of the Hague Conventions in general — because the machin- ery was not supported by the will to use it. There was one other reason, to which I referred on page 23. The apparatus of armament had become so tremendously sensitive that, although created to preserve peace, it was so perfectly prepared for war that when a dispute reached its climax, a postponement even of a few hours was impossible. A few days' delay, even twenty -four hours' delay, would give the enemy an advantage that might never have been regained. That is why Austria-Hungary refused to extend the time allowed Serbia to 64 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE answer her ultimatum, refused to take part in the Conference of Ambassadors proposed by Sir Edward Grey, and did not respond to the Serbian proposal to refer the dispute to the Hague ; and that is why Germany refused the similar proposal made by the Czar on the twenty-ninth of July, and allowed Russia but twelve hours to answer her ultimatum. Russia had begun to mobilize, and every German decision was dominated by the fear that if the Czar's proposals for pacific settle- ment were accepted, Russia would get the start and have the military advantage. This delicately balanced system of armament, this extreme "preparation for peace," actually led to war. Thus experience has confirmed our conten- tions that armament alone does not insure peace, and furthermore that the constant increase of armament is an actual menace to peace. Armament makes all the machinery created to secure peace a mere illusion. In contrast to the pacifist method of securing WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 65 peace by delay, the anarchical method of "insuring" peace by increasing armament makes rapid action imperative. The over-sensitive system of armament was not the sole cause of the war. No small part was played by the hope of anticipating increases planned by the enemies of Germany. The knowledge that the Russian land and sea forces were to be strengthened, and strate- gic railways built on her western border, and that France was about to reintroduce the three-year compulsory service, weakened op- position to war in Germany and prevented a peaceful settlement. It may have been the expectation of a relatively less favorable position as regards armament, quite apart from such immediate disadvantage as a delay would have brought, which made the respon- sible military leaders think it inadvisable further to postpone the conflict. How often has preparedness been praised as the surest guarantee of peace, as a cheap insurance premium against the losses of war ! 66 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE The outbreak of the present war has proved that these sacrifices of strength and wealth were made to an illusion, that the armaments themselves inhibited rational means of adjust- ment; indeed, that the system of competitive armament inseparable from preparedness finally left no way out but war — to avoid which the whole system was supposedly established ! How can the expenditure of more such billions be justified when it is evident that all this preparation not only was unable to prevent this most fearful of all wars, but actually caused it? It can no longer be said that it was armament that kept Germany at peace forty-four years. It is a not a question of armament alone but of competition in armament. It did indeed postpone open war, but it only postponed it, and never for a single hour did it give us any real security. All through these four and forty years there has been the constant danger of war. We have never enjoyed true peace; only the sparse fruits of a very dangerous truce have WARS LESSONS UP TO DATE 67 been ours. No reasonable person will de- mand that we disarm and stand defenceless. But we must learn the grave lessons of this war, that a peace secured by big guns is not enough, that means must be found to estab- lish a new system of international relation- ships not founded on the mere accumulation of instruments of war. That is one of the lessons which this war has already taught us, and it is not the least important. The world-war has confirmed another im- portant pacifist principle. It has demon- strated the ineffectiveness of attempts to humanize and regulate warfare. The pacifist doctrine has always been that force cannot be legalized, and that such a reversion to the primitive as war is incapable of humanization. It is just as impossible to limit the efficiency of instruments of destruction as to prescribe regulations for the manner in which an over- heated steam-boiler shall crack. It is an impossible attempt to change the inevitable sequence of cause and effect. As Eucken somewhere says, men sometimes wish the 68 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE stones of their buildings to be soft, if they happen to fall on their heads. War suspends all the laws of morality, it sets aside the laws of society, and restores the primitive condi- tion of unrestricted lawlessness. At such a time there cannot be order. A condition of anarchy may be completely done away with, but it cannot be regulated. Many, not pacifists, who think that war is still indispensable, admit this. Again and again military men have told us that the greatest inhumanity in war is the greatest humanity, because it exhausts the enemy most quickly, thus hasten- ing peace and avoiding much sacrifice and misery. "There is no such thing as humane warfare. The purpose of every war is the physical destruction of the enemy." So said Dr. Dernburg, formerly Colonial Secretary, to a voter who asked him for material to refute certain accusations in connection with the war in Southwest Africa. It cannot be denied that some forbearance in war is both possible and necessary, and that protection of the prisoners and wounded WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 69 has saved many lives. But it is not always possible, nor can we expect that the existing rules will be obeyed without exception. Even in time of peace it is impossible to keep the brute instincts of some individuals within the bounds of law ; how much less is it possible in time of war, when such people can give their instincts free rein ! We do not want to abolish the Red Cross ; but we must not expect too much of it, nor content ourselves with it alone. True humanity consists in protecting human life and health from the dangers of war, not in making the consequences of those dangers more tolerable. Such endeavors are never more than a makeshift. They save some, but they cannot prevent others from perishing without help or care ; many wounded men and prisoners are killed by the hardships of the system. This is true of all the various attempts to regulate warfare. The sutTerings of the civil population, the destruction of public buildings and works of art, of private estates, the sinking of ships and their passengers, the use of hunger 70 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE and fire as weapons, — all these which those who sought to humanize warfare had come to regard as things of the past, have, despite all the well-meant attempts to prevent them, been horribly common in this war. Such atrocities do not demonstrate unlimited cruelty inherent in human nature, but rather the simple impossibility of proceeding other- wise with instruments fashioned for that very purpose, instruments which cannot but be cruel. There are a number of reasons why atroc- ities beyond comprehension are more fre- quent in this than in previous wars. War was never before fought on so huge a scale, with such masses of men, or with such per- fected weapons. The destruction has inevita- bly been greater and more permanent. If the best heads in the world occupy them- selves for decades in devising the quickest and most effective means for destroying human life, human institutions and human property, something very perfect in the way of destruction is bound to follow. This war is WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 71 not qualitatively more inhumane than pre- vious wars ; but quantitatively its cruelty sur- passes them all and therefore it horrifies us. Furthermore, war was never before waged in sueh civilized regions. To the amount of destruction caused by the extension of the theatre of war and the effectiveness of its instruments is added the fact that the men opposing each other are very highly civilized and the region very highly cultivated. Never before was war waged so publicly. It makes a difference whether war be waged in Man- churia or Thrace, or in the very centre of European civilization. Europe is closer to us, both in space and in feeling, and the desperate cries of its inhabitants are listened to and comprehended as those from the remote parts of the earth which have suffered from war in recent years, were not. No, no ! War as such is not more cruel than in the past, but we are more affected by it because we ourselves have become more sensitive. If the ancient civilization of the peoples now at war is unable to modify the horrors 72 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE and sufferings of the machine-made war of to-day, if the modern European cannot escape the compulsion to cruelty inherent in war, what success can we expect from these various rules and regulations in the future? It is all very well for carefully educated, well-clothed, highly moral gentlemen, sitting around a green table under the protection of the law, to discuss them. Safe in port it is easy to make regulations for the conduct of passengers in case of shipwreck. But we are not horrified if the affrighted crowd, in the moment of danger, when the ship is sinking, does not obey the rules. We explain the panic psycho- logically. And in time of war — an infinitely greater catastrophe — can we expect the con- scientious observance of rules made in time of peace? That would be to misunderstand human nature and the nature of war, whose express purpose it is to disregard the dictates of humanity. The men who codified the laws of war had more psychological insight than those in various countries who wax angry over their WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 73 violation. Any one reading with care the provisions of the Hague Conventions with regard to the laws of warfare on land and sea will observe that they were written less in the hope that they would really be obeyed than as a rather becoming decoration for our civiliza- tion. In no other way can those clauses be understood which retract in one paragraph what was said in the preceding ; those clauses which read "as far as is compatible with military necessity," "under certain circum- stances," "as far as is possible," etc. They disclose how well the authors were aware that practice would play havoc with their theory. They added those limitations only to save their own souls. The discussion at the Hague shows how conscious they were of the self-contradiction of the attempt to regulate warfare. In reply- ing to the American plea for the immunity of private property at sea one of the delegates, the representative of a small maritime country, said that the possibility of destroying com- merce in time of war was one element in the 74 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE defence of small nations. It had boon called a relic of piracy: "That is true, just as it is true that war is nothing but organized murder. We retain this right only for the time when normal life has ceased. We simply cannot tie OUT hands at the very moment when jus- tice disappears to be replaced by force, when pity veils its eyes and inexorable brute force is supreme." That was an honorable admis- sion which lacked nothing in logic. At a time when by common consent force domi- nates, when everything depends upon force, regulations and restrictions cannot expect to be observed. They are mere decoration. Mankind, conscious that war is an unworthy institution incompatible with the demands of an enlightened age, has by such provisions for regulation and humanization only sought to deceive its awakening conscience. These provisions arc merely the fig-leaf which mankind demands after eating of the tree of knowledge. No more than a tig-leaf can cover the naked- ness of the body, can any number of Geneva and Hague Conferences humanize warfare. WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 75 Only the war could prove this. The lesson is of great importance. It will sharpen the sense of responsibility among those in power, and strengthen the demand for peace among the masses. War is a bestial institution, and he who would protect mankind from its evils must do more than attempt to regulate it; he must work for its abolition. All else is humbug I We must refuse to listen to those who say that the war has shown that international law is bankrupt. They err. International law has not failed, but merely the so-called laics of war, which were never truly law at all. For war is the cessation of law. True inter- national law is that law which human society has developed for its normal activity ; it rests upon the foundations of our civilization ; it has been created by reason for the promotion of organization. Only fools would give up such order for unfettered force, or would es- tablish a kind of law which, self-contradictory as it would be, would inevitably fail at the firing of the first shot. 76 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE Another thing this war has taught ns is a clear recognition of the changed function of war as a political instrument. Many, judging from the European wars of the past, had been quite misled. There were still many people who thought of war as a short but rejuvenat- ing letting of blood, disturbing the peaceful course of human events for a time, but promis- ing an acceleration of progress in the future. The catch-phrase of a "fresh and merry" (frisch and frohlich) war is at last dead forever, and with it have gone all the beauty and romance of war. It is unfortunate that experimental proof was required to rid us of so outgrown a conception. The arithmetical proposition ought to have been enough. But we were too deep set in tradition and we did not want to get away from it. We have learned only a little of the real cost of this war, but there are enough data already at hand to convert those who still maintain so petty a conception of war and seek to deceive the people with it. The magic of military WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 77 romance is gone forever. The mountains of corpses, the legions of cripples, the one-armed, the one-legged, blind, infected, consumptive, those afflicted with heart dis- eases and the insane, and the smoking ruins already left behind by the war, the property destroyed, the capital and savings lost, and, not least, the bleeding hearts and shattered nerves, make such a mass of misery and despair that not even the most expert white- washers will ever again be able to conceal the facts. We were deceived. We believed that that which we call war to-day was the same as that which was called by the same name in days gone by, simply because it was un- chained in the same old way. Modern war is as incomparable to the knightly expedi- tions of past centuries as the explosion of a match to an eruption of Vesuvius. The instrument which man once controlled has grown beyond his control. He is no longer master, but is servant of a thing which, once set free, he cannot master. Clausewitz' defini- ?S THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE Uod oi war as a continuation of politics, "but with different instruments," is no longer applicable. The instruments arc too expen- sive. War can no longer be described as a continuation of politics; it is an open admission of the bankruptcy of politics. This will be impressively evident when we come to view the present catastrophe as a whole. The things that will come to light will tell such a tale that the glorifiers of war will hardly dare again to ply their dangerous trade ; and if they do, their voices will be over- whelmed by the terrible burden of facts. They will hardly succeed in making new converts. Militarism has been dealt a blow from which it can never recover. The apostles of force will be silenced. The dream of romantic war is ended. The human earthquake of 1914 led to a fearful awakening. The technical lessons of the war are also important. Sorrowfully we pacifists noted with what surprise the new forms o( war were greeted. Half a generation ago Jean BlocJi, WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE 79 one of our own movement, predicted most of these phenomena almost exactly as they are happening to-day, with only such differences as can be accounted for by the further techni- cal development of arms and transportation. Jean Bloch appeared before the public in the late nineties with his big six-volume book on war, in which he sought to prove that the revolution in military technique, and the economic and social evolution of Europe, had caused such changes that it was doubtful whether a war between the equally armed great powers of Europe would ever lead to any result. He showed that the rapid evolution of military technique made the experience of past wars useless, and that the revolutionary changes in munitions required a new science of tactics. The necessity of fortified trenches, transforming war into a prolonged siege, the superiority of the defence, the huge losses, the long duration of the battles, their indecisive- ness for the course of a campaign, and the unprecedented shock to economic life caused by the extraordinary length of the war, — all BO rHE RESTORATION OF EUROPE those Bloch described in detail. He called attention to the vast extension of the battle- fields, to the resultant difficulties in the com- missary, to the insufficient provision for the wounded. He referred to the tremendous sacrifice of those huge battles, and described the future war as so sinister a thing that he doubted whether the nerves of civilised Euro- peans could bear the shook. From these premises he concluded we cannot yet verify his results - that the gigantic catastrophe of a modern war would be so- bloody and destruc- tive and the combatants would emerge from it so weakened that there would be no real victors or vanquished, and only the complete physical and economic exhaustion o( the com- batants would perforce put an end to hostili- ties. Bloch was certainly mistaken in many respects, especially as regards the supposed impossibility o( prolonged toleration o( eco- nomic disturbance. In respect to armaments and economic developments there was much that he. at the end of the past eentury. could WAR'S LESSONS UP TO DATE si not foresee. Bui he was right in the essentials; the present war has vindicated his teachings. Whether the war will end as he predicted, only the future can tell. It almost looks as it' he were right. The war has already taught US that si at os such as tin 4 groat powers of Europe, or allied groups of such states, cannot be forced to their knees according to the old recipe. This war will not end with a victori- ous conqueror dictating terms of peace to a vanquished opponent, as all tho belligerents at first expected. We have much to un- learn. In modern war there are no im- petuous charges; there are no hills whence tho general, seated astride a fiery charger, surveys the battle through a hold glass. The pictures of our schooldays are no longer true to life; and the end will be as different from tho storios. The immensity of the states at war entirely excludes tho possibility o( complete defeat. There will have to be a compromise in tho end and one which could have boon made much more cheaply before the war began. 88 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE Bloch's intent ion was to make this chain of reasoning clear. He had no desire to stand in history as a soothsayer and prophet : he wished to be a monitor and to teach a method ot' international settlement different from the old, which seemed to him st> ineffective. His doctrine was not built on any new discoveries : he had simply collected the works of military authorities; but he drew conclusions from them as a sociologist instead of as a strategist. lie was little appreciated by his contempo- raries. The Hague Conferences were said to have been called as a result of his book, but he was unable to influence their negotiations as he desired. As an outsider he lectured in the evenings to the Hague delegates. In vain he called upon the governments not to believe or disbelieve him blindly, but to test his conclusions. In vain ! They preferred to be surprised fifteen years later by events which they might have learned from him to foresee. This war may bring recognition to our prophet, for it is proving in practice the truth of his theory. Europe has undertaken a WARS LESSONS UP TO DATE 88 bloody investigation. Perhaps this pacifist, so little understood by his own contemporaries, will emerge the only victor in the war. Perhaps then a Europe, grown wiser by its wounds, will commemorate him by a bronze statue on one of its highest peaks. In the preceding chapter I spoke of some of the other lessons which the war has taught us. That the world has already become an economic unit, which if disturbed at one point, suffers in all parts of the organism; that the political interrelationships were al- ready so highly developed that — at least in Europe — wars could no longer be "localized"; that war in any case, wheresoever and by whomsoever it might be waged, is, since all suffer by it, a serious matter for every nation on earth — these things the history of the last few months has taught us. There is no need further to discuss them. At the conclusion of the hard struggle there will be still other and decisive lessons to be learned. When the war began we heard much of the need to unlearn and to relearn (umlerncn). M ruv RESTORATION OF EUROPE We urns t in the sensi phrase •■■ is Brsl use We must at las fto istom wirsdves is DO > il instrument i as its m isi wis nooq nfl , * or else m. ft, must be elimi- ted. CHAPTER IV The Treaty of Peace and Future Peace "Evert war ends in peace." — That is another of those aphorisms which are repeated parrotlike when they no longer contain an atom of truth. We have known for centuries that the earth moves around the sun; nevertheless we still speak in mediaeval terms of the "rising* 5 and the "setting" of the sun. Just as old and just as untrue is the saying that war ends in peace: but there is this difference, that the fundamental untruth of the latter phrase is not so generally under- stood as of that which Galileo exposed. It is a very dangerous phrase. Wars have never ended in true peace. They usually end with a treaty of peace that stops armed hostilities and introduces a condition of latent hostility, but which leaves the community of nations in just as primitive a condition as before. So 86 r 1 1 E B E STORATION F E UROP E The disorganisation and national isolation persist ; when a treaty of peaee is signed with the usual eonrtesies. aente war is merely transformed into latent. As 1 have pointed out, that condition may have been quite tolerable when eaeh state was self-sntfieient. before the natural tendeney to interdepen- dence had made itself felt. But to follow the same old course to-day would be madness, and would mean destruction for the entire Euro- pean organism. This is not a war which ean be ended with a simple treaty of peaee. That which we eall war is only the final aet of a drama which has been convulsing Europe for a generation. It did not begin on the 28th of July, 1914; it began decades ago. To-day it is disclosing the danger in which we have been living ; it has created intolerable conditions which are quite incompatible with the evolution of the soeiety of nations. The petty methods of the past are incompetent to overcome this state of things. It will not do to sign a treaty of peace which does nothing but stop the tlow of blood THE TREAT? OF PEACE s: and end the most obvious evils of anarchy, leaving everything otherwise as it was before. The task before us is to close a (earful period of human history. It can only be accom- plished by establishing a durable peace, a true peace, which shall transform international intercourse and set international relations on a new and better track. When, after all these sacrifices, we have at last recognised international anarchy for what it really is, we shall not allow the menace to continue. Thai perilous catchword according to which this bath of blood would automatically lead to peace, must be east aside. However pains- takingly a treaty be made, if it provides merely for altered boundary-lines and for indemnities, it is insufficient. It would not achieve that true peace at which we aim, and which humanity musi have. Instinctively the people and the govern- ments divine the real issue. A certain una- nimity o( purpose in the midst of the great conflict is clear. It is fearful to realize that all the people who arc fighting so bloodily arc 88 THE RESTORATION OF EUROPE fighting for the same end. They are all fighting, according to their own statements, for their right to existence and their future safety. Thai end, however, can only he atlained by organization. Neither subjugation nor the complete victory of one party over the other will ever bring peace and security to this tormented continent. Nevertheless each of the warring countries hopes lo achieve its purpose in this impossi- ble manner, and refuses to recognize the actual conditions of communal life. 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