Page:Jay William Hudson - A Practical International Program.pdf/22

 force in the world, not as the coercer of the international conscience, but as the expression of the international conscience. Force as the expression of international reason is the deification of force; force as the coercer of international reason is the prostitution of force. The next stage in the world's history will be marked by the splendid transition to a civilization in which force becomes subservient to reason and law, rather than being the creator of opinion and law as in the past.

The efficiency of an international police depends, of course, upon the agreement of all the nations to do away with their individual armies and navies, except so far as they may need them for the purposes of internal order, as, for instance, the putting down of strikes, riots and local rebellions. ''No nation can disarm alone: that would be impracticable and perhaps suicidal in the present stage of the world's history. No: the great powers must disarm together.'' The absurd competition in armaments must end. Already the burden of taxation for the support of these armaments on the part of the masses of the people of all countries is becoming unbearable. Besides, this competition in armaments in the last resort results in an endless circle, utterly futile in the attainment of its real design. If one nation adds a unit of armament and another nation, because of this, adds two units, and then the first nation adds a third unit, which is the gainer by the process? Neither gains; but that is not the worst of it,—both lose to the extent of the enormous expense to which they have gone and to the extent of subtracting millions, perhaps billions of dollars from the legitimate constructive work of national upbuilding. How this disarmament is to be brought about is a detail which statesmen must solve at the earliest possible moment. It is quite possible