to lay some of the motives bare and let the reader judge whether there may not be an insidious plot on foot to make a deal between the big nations to crush the little ones.  For this purpose I will consider two books on the question, one by Mr. Norman Angell, “The Great Illusion,” and one by M. Jacques Novikow, “War and Its Alleged Benefits.”  In the work of Mr. Angell the reader will find the suggestion of the deal, while in the work of M. Novikow is given a clear and honest statement of the anti-militarist position, with which we can all heartily agree.  Those of us who would assert our freedom should understand the right anti-militarist position, because in its exponents we shall find allies at many points.  But with Mr. Angell’s book it is otherwise.  These points emerge:  the basis of morality is self-interest; the Great Powers have nothing to gain by destroying one another, they should agree to police and exploit the territory of the “backward races”; if the statesmen take a different view from the financiers, the financiers can bring pressure to bear on the statesmen by their international organisation; the capitalist has no country.  Well, our comment is, the patriot has a country, and when he wakens to the new danger, he may spoil the capitalist dream, and this book of Mr. Angell’s may in a sense other than that the author intended be appropriately named “The Great Illusion.”

II

The limits of this essay do not admit of detailed examination of the book named.  What I propose to do is make characteristic extracts sufficiently full to let the reader form judgment.  As we are only concerned for the present with the danger I mention, I take particular notice of Mr. Angell’s book, and I refer the reader for further study to the original.  But the charge of taking an accidental line from its context cannot be made here, as the extracts are numerous, the tendency of all alike, and more of the same nature can be found.  I divide the extracts into three groups, which I name: 

  1.  The Ethics of the Case.

  2.  The Power of Money.

  3.  The Deal.

Where italics are used they are mine.

1.  THE ETHICS OF THE CASE.—­“The real basis of Social Morality is self-interest.” ("The Great Illusion,” 3rd Ed., p. 66.) “Have we not abundant evidence, indeed, that the passion of patriotism, as divorced from material interest, is being modified by the pressure of material interest?” (p. 167.) “Piracy was magnificent, doubtless, but it was not business.” (Speaking of the old Vikings, p. 245.) “The pacifist propaganda has failed largely because it has not put (and proven) the plea of interest as distinct from the moral plea.” (p. 321.)

  2.  THE POWER OF MONEY.—­“The complexity of modern finance makes New
  York dependent on London, London upon Paris, Paris upon Berlin, to a
  greater degree than has ever yet been the case in history.” (p. 47.)