Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/176

 and good living. If we let this moment pass, the nations will forget. The memories of the horrors, the destructions, the follies of Armageddon will die out as its debts are paid off, as the new generation grows up; and, as in old wars, only the souvenirs of its glories will remain.

Now, I repeat, is the appointed time to consolidate what Armageddon won for peace, and we, both actually and potentially the strongest nation of the world, are the appointed people.

Along what practical lines may we proceed?

Doubtless accumulated experience, translated into policies and action by men of genius, and leadership will find us new ways. But here are the courses of possible action on which many are thinking at present and a few working:

First and most drastically, we may create a real law, not a mere set of gentlemen’s agreements between nation and nation. That is the kernel of the matter.

Law is the set of agreements, backed up by some kind of force, to prevent murder and theft and injustice between the individuals of a tribe or a state. In the savage beginning of things, men probably killed whomsoever they wished, took whatsoever they desired. But people could not get along and make progress on that plan. An individual with the fighting endowments of a Jack Dempsey had it all his own way. Before long, men got together and drew up primary rules of the human game. You