Assume even that no new war does break out again actually, dare any
nation neglect to keep up its naval and military armaments on a scale
far greater than before? How is the burden to be met when every penny
that can be raised as revenue will be needed to meet the charge on our
gigantic debt and the necessary claims for carrying on Government, to
say nothing of improving the conditions of life? We cannot, nor can
other nations, go on using up capital and borrowing indefinitely. The
choice is between assured peace and certain ruin, even if no war
actually occurs. How can peace be assured? It would be well for some of
those with the requisite historical knowledge and insight to trace
carefully the causes which have led to war in the past, to attempt a
diagnosis of the disease which has again and again devastated the world.
A vain classification might perhaps be made into religious wars,
dynastic wars, trade wars; but is there not one element common almost to
all, namely, the will to power, the desire and intention of some man or
set of men to impose their will on others, regardless of justice, which
forbids the exercise of force to prevent each thinking, speaking, acting
as he will, provided he does not injure the rights of others? It was the
assertion of a claim to dominate which led to the eighty years' war when
Spain tried to impose her yoke on the Netherlands, and blended with
desire for gain a crusade against the faiths which rejected the
supremacy of Rome. Was the Thirty years War a religious war or a
struggle between rulers to assert and extend their powers? Take any one
of the series of long wars, such as those of Louis XIV. or of Napoleon,
under what head of such a classification do they fall? Does not the
common element above mentioned apply to all of them?

The urgency of taking definite steps to secure peace has been recognised
already, much thought has been devoted to it, and schemes even in some