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 detail have been suggested for dealing with it.  The idea of a League of Nations to secure peace is occupying the attention of many of the wisest minds and of the statesmen who hold the most responsible positions.  It is meeting with strong popular support, at all events in Britain and in the United States.  France and Italy are examining the proposal.  It is well, however, where attractive phrases are used and schemes proposed, to subject them carefully to the double test:  how far they cover the ground and meet the real difficulties; and, secondly, how they would work out in practice in the circumstances which are likely to arise.  We want to look at the question as a whole, to see exactly what we have to aim at, sometimes to reiterate what seem almost useless truisms.  The obvious is too often overlooked.  First we need to recognise the actual facts, then let the right spirit grow up and become general, and after that attempt to plan the best machinery and test its probable effect and efficiency by seeing how it would be expected to work in various special cases.