Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/580

 574 THE aCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

and ignorance of human nature. We do not see that present senti- ments will gradually give way to others. We do not see how one step calls for another^ and yet another. Do we not all boast as to how we should act if we were millionaires? How shall we best find out what we should do imder such circumstances? The best way conceivable is to select a thousand or two who have become millionaires and see what the majority have done. We shall, in spite of our honest convictions conceived under present conditions, in all probability act like the people whom we condemn.

It would be diflScult to find a more clear-cut contradiction between intelligence and feeling than is presented in our consideration of pre- paredness. We try to blind ourselves to the fact that such considera- tions are prompted by all the instincts and feelings that make for war everywhere. The most unreasonable and unlikely fears are everywhere presented as the basis of action. Parallels and analogies of the most absurd kind are evidenced everywhere. Everything is done to array sentiment against intelligence. We cry out: ^'Look at England and France I See their fate for not being prepared." Are we to infer from this that our military preparedness is to go beyond what theirs was? Prominent public speakers and magazines compare the intended preparedness to our necessity of police and to " guarding against bur- glars." Suppose other nations so adroitly called us burglars. We should immediately want to defend our honor. Even The Outhok goes beyond this and compares it to preparation against fire and to the subjugation of the citizen by the state. One writer compares it to the obedience which a switch produces in children. Are we to be the state with all other nations our obedient subjects ? Under the influence of such wild analogies the whole nation may become war-mad.

The fundamental psychological facts are : We have been surprised, and our mental peace has been taken from us by the revelations of a preparedness so far surpassing ours that we do not see ourselves so much of a world power as we had imagined. In spite of our boast of moral strength, we repudiate our Christianity and admit that we must rely more on physical force than on moral power for our " place in the sun." It is an interesting panorama of moral contradictions. We can not see that such evidences of practical righteousness as the repeal of the Panama Canal Tolls Exemption Act will do more to keep us out of war than fifty battleships.

Our pride has been touched, our hate aroused, our jealousy kindled, our imagination set going. We want to be able to strike, not when we are invaded (who would wait so long as that?), but when our trade is interfered with, when any more citizens are killed on the high seas, and to liberate those whom we think outraged by other heartiess people. We want our army and navy to speak in the councils of the world.

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