Essays in War-Time | Page 7

of
regenerating and purifying mankind, and every war may properly be
regarded as a holy war. These beliefs have been implicit in the Prussian
spirit ever since the Goths and Vandals issued from the forests of the
Vistula in the dawn of European history. But they have now become a
sort of religious dogma, preached from pulpits, taught in Universities,
acted out by statesmen. From this Prussian point of view, whether right
or wrong, civilisation, as it has hitherto been understood in the world, is
of little consequence compared to German militaristic Kultur.
Therefore the German quite logically regards the Russians as
barbarians, and the French as decadents, and the English as
contemptibly negligible, although the Russians, however yet dominated
by a military bureaucracy (moulded by Teutonic influences, as some
maliciously point out), are the most humane people of Europe, and the
French the natural leaders of civilisation as commonly understood, and
the English, however much they may rely on amateurish methods of
organisation by emergency, have scattered the seeds of progress over a
large part of the earth's surface. It is equally logical that the Germans
should feel peculiar admiration and sympathy for the Turks, and find in
Turkey, a State founded on military ideals, their own ally in the present
war. That war, from our present point of view, is a war of States which
use military methods for special ends (often indeed ends that have been
thoroughly evil) against a State which still cherishes the primitive ideal
of warfare as an end in itself. And while such a State must enjoy
immense advantages in the struggle, it is difficult, when we survey the
whole course of human development, to believe that there can be any
doubt about the final issue.
For one who writes as an Englishman, it may be necessary to point out
clearly that that final issue by no means involves the destruction, or

even the subjugation, of Germany. It is indeed an almost pathetic fact
that Germany, which idealises warfare, stands to gain more than any
country by an assured rule of international peace which would save her
from warfare. Placed in a position which renders militaristic
organisation indispensable, the Germans are more highly endowed than
almost any people with the high qualities of intelligence, of
receptiveness, of adaptability, of thoroughness, of capacity for
organisation, which ensure success in the arts and sciences of peace, in
the whole work of civilisation. This is amply demonstrated by the
immense progress and the manifold achievements of Germany during
forty years of peace, which have enabled her to establish a prosperity
and a good name in the world which are now both in peril. Germany
must be built up again, and the interests of civilisation itself, which
Germany has trampled under foot, demand that Germany shall be built
up again, under conditions, let us hope, which will render her old ideals
useless and out of date. We shall then be able to assert as the mere
truisms they are, and not as a defiance flung in the face of one of the
world's greatest nations, the elementary propositions I have here set
forth. War is not a permanent factor of national evolution, but for the
most part has no place in Nature at all; it has played a part in the early
development of primitive human society, but, as savagery passes into
civilisation, its beneficial effects are lost, and, on the highest stages of
human progress, mankind once more tends to be enfolded, this time
consciously and deliberately, in the general harmony of Nature.
[1] P. Chalmers Mitchell, Evolution and the War, 1915.
[2] On the advantages of war in primitive society, see W. MacDougal's
Social Psychology, Ch. XI.
[3] It is doubtless a task beset by difficulties, some of which are set
forth, in no hostile spirit, by Lord Cromer, "Thinking Internationally,"
Nineteenth Century, July, 1916; but the statement of most of these
difficulties is enough to suggest the solution.

III

WAR AND EUGENICS
In dealing with war it is not enough to discuss the place of warfare in
Nature or its effects on primitive peoples. Even if we decide that the
general tendency of civilisation is unfavourable to war we have
scarcely settled matters. It is necessary to push the question further
home. Primitive warfare among savages, when it fails to kill, may be a
stimulating and invigorating exercise, simply a more dangerous form of
dancing. But civilised warfare is a different kind of thing, to a very
limited extent depending on, or encouraging, the prowess of the
individual fighting men, and to be judged by other standards. _What
precisely is the measurable effect of war, if any, on the civilised human
breed?_ If we want to know what to do about war in the future,