Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/98



at any rate was the situation up to the Great War when stronger divergencies of thought and feeling impaired the solidarity of membership in the groups with which I had contacts. The War was, indeed, a disrupting influence in every organization and movement with which I was associated. Most of these were by name or character democratic, pacifist, anti-Imperialist, and the War was an acid test for all such professions. Several of the active leaders in the pacifist movement, H. W. Perris (one of my closest friends for many years), J. R. Green, Victor Fisher, and Maddison, leaders in the peace movement, became strong supporters of a war policy, which would justify itself from their pacifist standpoint as “a war to end war.” But this “peace” policy was an interesting psychological disclosure. Peace is in itself a negative conception, and perfect peace, like complete security, can have little positive emotional appeal. But when a minority group of pacifists is organized against war, it becomes a combative body, conducts “campaigns”; and its leaders are by natural selection “fighting men.” This was the case with the men I have mentioned. Their. natural pugnacity had helped them to leadership, and when the War came on it swept aside