The World in Chains | Page 7

is our
prison so lovely that though the walls fall down we refuse to walk out
into the air?
CHAPTER II

A sociologist wrote to the Vali of Aleppo, asking: What are the imports
of Aleppo? What is the nature of the water-supply? What is the
birth-rate, and the death-rate?
The Vali replied: It is impossible for anyone to number the camels that
kneel in the markets of Aleppo. The water is sufficient; no one ever
dies of thirst in Aleppo. How many children shall be born in this great
city is known only to Allah the compassionate, the merciful. And who
would venture to inquire the tale of the dead? For it is revealed only to
the Angels of death who shall be taken and who shall be left. O idle
Frank, cease from your presumptuous questioning, and know that these
things are not revealed to the children of men.
The Bustan of Mahmud Aga el-Arnauty.
§ 1
The Armament Ring
What, in short, are the forces that make for the anachronistic survival of
war--apart of course from the defect that it is always with us, the habit
of inertia, sometimes called Conservatism?
The obvious answer is not, I think, the correct one. At least it is correct
as far as it goes, but leaves us very far from a complete explanation of
this unpleasant survival. So scandalous is the interrelation of the
armament firms[11] which has developed the world's trade in
munitions and explosives into one obscene cartel; so cynical is the
avidity with which their agents exchange their trade secrets, sell ships
and guns, often by means of diplomatic blackmail, to friend or foe alike,
and follow those pioneers of civilisation the missionary, the gin
merchant and the procurer,[12] into the wildest part of the earth; so
absurd on the face of it is the practice of allowing the manufacture of
armaments to remain in the hands of private companies; that it is very
tempting to see in the great Armament Firms the principal if not the
only cause of modern war. Examiners of German militarism, most of
them stupid enough to quote Nietzsche, may be pardoned for
emphasising the political influence of Krupp; and since every great

Power has a more or less efficiently organised Krupp of its own, it
would be permissible to suggest that war would be already obsolete but
for the intensive cultivation it receives for the benefit of Krupp, Creusot,
Elswick and the rest. But it would be wrong; our syllogism would have
a badly undistributed middle. It is true that Krupp in particular, who is
the actual owner of more than one popular German newspaper, and
other armament firms in a smaller degree, exercise an enormous
influence on national opinion, create their own markets by the threat of
war, and would go bankrupt if wars should cease. You may also say
that their shareholders live by prostituting the patriotism of their
fellow-citizens: in short, you may denounce them with the most
expensive rhetoric to be had without doing them any injustice. But the
fact remains that their position with regard to war is exactly analogous
to that of the great breweries with regard to drunkenness. They live by
taking advantage of human weakness. It is quite accurate, therefore, to
describe their earnings as immoral, but they are no more the cause of
the immorality they exploit and undoubtedly encourage, than makers of
seismological instruments are responsible for the occurrence of
earthquakes. The interests of one trade alone, however powerful in
itself, would never be strong enough to plunge a nation into war. They
are, of course, accessories to the crime; but the militarism they are
guilty of fostering has other primary explanations.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 11: Several books have been published giving details of the
Armament Ring and international "Kruppism." I don't think that the
language here used does any injustice to the facts.]
[Footnote 12: See below, § 7.]
§ 2
Eugenics?
In this brief investigation of the possible causes of war, it must be
understood that what we want to find is what is called a "sufficient
reason" for its continued existence. The armament trades may supply

the means, the occasion, the stimulant, but their relation to it is not
essentially causal. Many writers of another school have attempted to
prove that the sufficient reason of war is a beneficent function of which
they believe it to be capable. This imaginary function is none other than
that of improving the race, and we may admit at once that, if there were
the slightest scientific basis for such a belief, the bloodiest war would
be morally justified, and it would be the religious duty of every
individual to kill as many as possible of his fellows for the benefit of
their descendants. But of