THE MORAL SANCTION OF FORCE

Upon what basis, in time of peace, do international relations rest? The status quo is maintained by force. Peace exists only because nations do not feel prepared to challenge the forces which those who favor the status quo are able to employ in its defence. The diplomatic representatives of different nations, in all really vital issues, do or do not win out in international disputes according as they the countries they represent have or have not adequate military forces at their disposal. Many pacifists speak as if armies and navies lie useless when not engaged in war. As a matter of fact they are what alone give weight to the argument of diplomacy when vital issues are at stake. It is the armies and navies that decide under what conditions and in favor of what nations peace will be maintained. When war occurs, it is due not to a break-down of civilization, but to the fact that some one nation has made up its mind that the forces to which it has hitherto yielded must now be challenged. Throughout the period of peace it has been constrained by the threat of force; war is simply the challenging of the forces that have hitherto held the competing interests in temporary equilibrium.— "The Moral Sanction of Force," by Norman Kemp Smith, in the Hibbert Journal.

rights of the United States. Our neutral rights were invaded by the Napoleonic decrees and the British orders in council. Although we have increased so enormously in population and area and wealth in the century that has followed, we are relatively as weak in organized military power as we were then. American property is ruthlessly seized or destroyed at sea and American lives imperiled without compunction or hesitation by one of the belligerents, if a blow can thereby be aimed at a belligerent enemy. Americans are thus placed between the upper and nether millstone.

Peace may be maintained between distant nations because one has no adequate motive to interfere with the other, as well as because it does not feel prepared to challenge the forces of the other. In the past hundred years no European nation has had any adequate motive to attack the United States, or at least any motive commensurate with the probable cost of such an enterprise. Another deterring factor has been the mutual jealousies of the great nations and their fear of each other. But if the present war should result in the acquisition of such a decided preponderance of force by one power, or group of powers, as to make it reasonably safe reasonably safe from interference, the abounding wealth and resources of this country might constitute an irresistible

temptation to a hostile enterprise against us, unless it should be manifest that we were prepared to make such manifestation too costly. At present our power of effective participation in the struggle is so lightly regarded that our neutral rights are treated with contemptuous indifference, as is shown. in the Lusitania, the Arabic, and other deplorable incidents.

Peaceful relations between nations are supposed by some to rest mainly if not entirely, upon moral considerations, but Professor Smith shows that the moral sanction of force is the most potent force. "The status quo is maintained by force," or by potential force. "The diplomatic representatives of different nations, in all really vital issues, do or do not win out in international disputes according as the countries they represent have or have not adequate. military forces at their disposal." And again: "Armies and navies are alone what give weight to the argument of diplomacy when vital issues are at stake." Therefore they are not useless when not engaged in war, because their potentiality turns the scale in favor of peace.

national tribunals now have over individuals. Until that time comes, each nation must be prepared to maintain its own integrity, to protect its national territory, the lives of its! citizens and their property and homes.

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AMATEUR SOLDIERING

HE Plattsburg camp, in which a number of business and professional men are being drilled in the rudiments of soldiering, is a development of the awakened public interest in military preparedness. In the present perturbed condition of the world it is felt that our country is not absolutely exempt from the possibility of being drawn into war in some way, and that some preparation for such a calamity would be only reasonable prudence. It is not to be supposed that the amount of training the business and professional men will get in a summer camp will amount to very much, but it is a beginning, and may lead to a public sentiment that will demand universal military training of our youth. The argument is now freely made that reliance upon volunteers throws the burden too much upon the willing, and exempts the slackers and shirkers. Universal service. such as they have in the Swiss Republic. imposes a democratic equality of service upon the whole body of youth.

But a nation is in the position of an individual living in a country where there is no recognized government. He must then depend upon his own prowess to protect his person and property. There is no recognized force among nations superior to the individual nation. If a nation is inclined to be ruthless, it is a law unto itself. Hence its neighbor nation must be prepared to resist its aggression and thus hold it in restraint to the extent that it will not venture to challenge the status quo.

It is to be hoped that, after this war is ended, there may be organized, with the consent and co-operation of the nations, a tribunal of International Justice which will have the same authority over nations that

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PAY?

HE slump in foreign exchange in the
New York market shows the diffi-

culties the warring nations are having in financing their immense purchases of war material in this country. They don't like to spare their gold, and the United States has perhaps a too ample supply of gold, as it is. They have already paid, millions by returning American securities held in Europe, but the remaining foreign owners of such securities seem reluctant to part with them. The placing of huge foreign loans in this country is talked of Whether our people will care to loan money to governments which are rapidly exhausting themselves by huge war expenditures, is a question. It is evident that there mus:

be a continuous return of foreign-owned American securities, and in this way the United States will cease to be a debtor nation, and, if the war continues, must become more and more a creditor nation:

PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE

Tion,

BUSINESS

HE Inter-State Commerce Commission, in the Western rate cases, allowed the railroads only a small part

of the increase of freight rates asked for. The managers of the roads declare that the relief granted is insignificant, and they can see in the attitude of the majority of the Commission no hope of future aid. However, Commissioner Daniels stated a principle which would afford hope if the majority of the Commission could free itself from political influences. He said: "If we are to acknowledge in general what we are compelled to admit in detail, just and reasonable rates should be permitted not grudgingly, but with such fair measure of allowance as will indicate that the transportation industry is entitled, in the interest of the public, to earnings sufficient to provide a service commensurate with public needs."

It is the vice of public commissions which are given power to regulate private business that not only do members of such commissions find it difficult to free their minds from political bias, but that they are also prone to listen to popular clamor. If the clamor, for instance, is against the Railroads, not all commissioners possess the independence of mind to do the roads absolute justice. The demand is often made upon corporations that they keep up their service to the highest point of efficiency, that they pay the highest rate of wages, that they employ the maximum number of men, that they pay interest on their bonds and dividends to their stockholders, and at the same time carry freight and passengers at a rate so low as to preclude the possibility of their meeting such charges out of their earnings. Thus public regulation has led to bankruptcies, to defaults on interest and dividends, and to the impairment of the property. We have seen this in the case of a number of Railroads.

Nevertheless, the proposition is made, in state and federal legislation, to subject all kinds of private business to such public control! The public can't eat their cake and have it, too. They can't have high wages and dividends and efficient service and at the same time refuse to pay a reasonable charge for such service.

THE SITUATION AS REGARDS MEXICO

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HE value of the co-operation of the Latin-American Republics with the United States in any movement for the pacification of Mexico is unquestioned. It would serve to disarm the jealous fear on the part of any portion of the Mexican people that their big northern neighbor had felonious designs upon their territory or designs of conquest. The Spanish-speaking peoples of Central and South America may be presumed to understand the Mexicans. better than we do, and to be in a better position to gain their confidence. At the same time, they have not the direct and immediate interest in the orderly government of Mexico that the people of the United States have.

Therefore the Latin-Americans, while willing to give advice, will doubtless insist that the United States assume the financial burden of intervention, if intervention there must be. However, we cannot see that intervention will be necessary. If General Carranza is able to hold Mexico City and maintain regular communication between that city and the seaport of Vera Cruz, he will be in a decided position of advantage, and it is conceivable that with the moral strength given him through recognition by the United States and the Latin-American powers, he would be able to gradually put down the banditti, including Villa and Zapata. We doubt if the Latin-Americans would be willing to countenance an intervention by armed force to suppress Carranza if he occupied the position of vantage above specified. Any attempt to set up a new ruler, as President or Dictator, who possesses no armed following, or a very inferior armed following, would require the occupation of the country by strong outside military

forces, and in the end the new ruler set up might not be any better than Carranza. Mexico has suffered so much from civil war during the past four years, that it would be a pity to have the administration at Washington inaugurate another war just to boost a Mexican leader whom President Wilson happens to prefer to Carranza.

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AGRICULTURE FIRST

REAT BRITAIN, in pursuit of industrial development, and also in pursuit of pleasure by her prosperous classes, has neglected her agricultural resources. Vast areas of the British isles have been made unproductive by devoting them to deer parks, hunting preserves and various ornamental uses. Until within recent years the comfort and sanitary housing and feeding of the agricultural laborers has been neglected. The poor wages and hard conditions of agricultural work have driven many to the slums of cities, in the hope of finding employment in the shops and mills.

The economic rulers of Great Britain have figured it out that it is cheaper to import food and more profitable to direct the energies of the country to manufacturing, than to raise food at home.

Germany has pursued a wiser economic course. Frederick the Great declared, in his essays upon the forms of government, that "the ruler should carefully watch the cultivation of the soil; that he should provide an abundance of food for the people, encourage industry, and further commerce.' These precepts have been obeyed by Frederick's successors. It has been the policy of the government to oblige every agriculturist to cultivate his property thoroughly and economically, for his own good and for that of the community in general. If a proprietor or tenant would not cultivate his land adequately, he could be dispossessed. Even after Germany began her great industrial development the thorough and intensive cultivation of the land was still required, and as a consequence, before the war, Germany could produce 95 per cent. of the food necessary for her population. Liberal imports were permitted; but now, under the stress of war, with enforced economies, Germany has

demonstrated her ability to feed her people and her armies substantially from her own products. This, in a country only about the size of our State of Texas, and containing some seventy millions of people, is a remarkable achievement. Great Britain is now sedulously trying to reform her agricultural methods, and other countries, taking example from Germany, will be ashamed, hereafter, not to adequately develop their agricultural resources.

THE AMERICAS AGAINST THE

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WORLD

HE great war naturally gets

people's nerves, and it is no wonder that a good many "see things at night." The biggest specter in the way of a national menace is embodied in the vision of Senator J. Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois. In an address before his State Bar Association he predicted that Russia, Germany, Japan and China would some time be arrayed in arms against the United States. In such a contingency he believed that this country could not look for aid from Great Britain. His conception of our way to prepare for and meet such an attack was to join in an alliance of friendship with the South American powers, declaring, as a preliminary, that our Monroe Doctrine shall in no wise interfere with the internal affairs of the South American lands, but that it shall be limited to the protection of the Western Hemisphere against any effort on the part of monarchical nations to overcome by force any Republics in this hemisphere.

In the present alignment of the world. powers, an alliance between Germany, Russia and Japan for war upon the United States, or for any other purpose, does not seem at all likely; but whether we are in danger from such a combination or not, the suggestion of an alliance of friendship between the North and South American powers of this hemisphere is a good one. At least three of the South American nations are already potentially powerful in military resources. Argentina has universal military service, and Chile has for many years possessed a fine military organization. Brazil is larger in area than the continental

part of the United States excluding Alaska, and quite as rich in natural resources. Brazil has already the nucleus of a powerful navy. If the people of this hemisphere could combine and employ their magnificent resources for mutual defense, instead of imitating the murderous example of Europe, there would be an assurance both of internal and external peace. A brotherhood compact between all the powers of the Western Hemisphere would be an absolute guarantee against invasion by Europe or Asia, and the American nations do not covet each other's lands and other resources, as each has all the room for expansion that its people can desire. With a union of hearts and a union of hands it might easily be the Americas against the world for defense and for all the legitimate rivalries of commerce and industry and material and moral development.

W1

STEIN"

HO has not read the story of the student who, in his search for the secret of life, created a monster which went by his own name of "Frankenstein?" The monster, after running a shocking career of crime, finally turned upon his creator.

When General Carranza was about at the end of his rope in Mexico, President Wilson ordered the evacuation of Vera Cruz by the United States forces. The port fell into the hands of Carranza, who happened to be near with a military force, and its possession gave him a capital, a base of operations, and a new lease of life as a "Revolutionist" or "Bandit," the designation depending upon the point of view. After securing possession of Vera Cruz Carranza, with the able help of General Obregon, was able to gain some military successes which leads him to imagine that he is the rightful ruler of Mexico. He is so stubborn and unyielding that he rejects the plan for the pacification of his distracted country offered by the United States and several of the Central and South American powers. Carranza is now the chief obstacle to the pacification of Mexico. If he persists in his attitude,

chemical elements, but her marvelous scientific ingenuity in inventing substitutes and her facility in conserving material and dedicating it to absolutely necessary uses, bids fair to enable her to eke out all necessary supplies to the point of remaining in the field as long as her opponents. As for food, the Germans, on a pinch, can feed their people and their armies upon their own agricultural resources, and these resources are supplemented, and always will be supplemented, to some extent, by importations from various sources. No blockade can shut Germans off entirely from receiving outside supplies. Shakespeare's "Laertes," when he was contemplating rebellion against the king because of his father's murder, exclaimed: "As for my means, I'll husband them so well, they shall go far with little!" No other nation, in ancient or modern times, has learned so well to husband its means as Germany.

Germany, later on, may possibly be beaten in the actual fighting, but it does not seem probable that her territory can ever be successfully invaded. She has constructed such powerful defenses that even if driven back to the Rhine on the western front, and to her own borders on the eastern front, her barriers could not be forced without such an