om the east. You will not
assist civilisation; you will set it back a thousand years. It will have
to fight again for its very existence, as it did in the Middle Ages."

But Vard shook his head.

"I have thought of that," he said. "In the first place, it will be
permitted to continue the use of explosives against the barbarians--for
defence, you understand, not for aggression--until such time as we can
persuade them, too, to lay down their arms. As to your other objection,
it falls to the ground the moment you agree with me that all the nations
of the world must ultimately become democracies. At first, it is true,
men fought of their own volition, but it was to secure food, to guard
their homes, or to replenish their supply of women. But since those very
early days, all wars have been wars not of the people, but of their
rulers. They were wars of revenge or of ambition, in which the people
joined because they had no choice. They were driven into the ranks, were
sometimes sold by one power to fight for another. Left to their own
choice, they would have remained quietly at home, tilling their fields,
rearing their families. The only great exception I know of is the early
wars of Napoleon. To those wars, the French people did undoubtedly rush;
but they were still drunk from the Revolution, and their ardour soon
passed. Your own people, the people of Germany, are a peaceable,
home-loving people. You have always had to keep them under your thumb by
forced service, by conscription, by the most rigorous laws; you have
always had to drive them to war."

"Another exception occurs to me," said Pachmann, disregarding the last
sentence, "and one to which I would call your attention, since it
occurred in a country where the people are supposed to govern. It was
the people of the United States who drove their rulers into the war with
Spain."

"That is true," Vard agreed; "and it was a mistake. The people will
sometimes err when their sympathy is appealed to and their passion
aroused. But the results of that war were, on the whole, good. A people
was freed."

"And another enslaved," said Pachmann, with a sneer.

"It was already enslaved," Vard corrected; "but I admit that it was
continued in slavery. That was done by the rulers, not by the people.
Had the people been permitted to decide, the Philippines would have been
free, no less than Cuba. Their independence must, of course, be
guaranteed when the United States signs our tr