ountry was successfully invaded,
and the native dynasty was overthrown by the Tartars of Manchuria;
one in 1840, when Great Britain compelled her to cede Hong-Kong
and to open five ports to foreign commerce, through which ports
opium could be introduced; one in 1860, with Great Britain and
France, that resulted in the capture of Pekin; and one with Japan
in 1894. Since that time (as well as before) China has been the
scene of revolutions and wide-spread disturbances, so that, even
though a peace-loving and non-resisting nation, peace has not reigned
within her borders. The last dynasty was overthrown in 1912. Since
then a feeble republic has dragged on a precarious existence,
interrupted by the very short reign of Yuan Shih K'ai.

This brief consideration of the trend of people up to the present
time seems to show that, owing to the nature of man himself, especially
to the nature of large "crowds" of men, the direction in which
nations have been moving hitherto has not been toward increasing
the prevalence of peace, but rather toward increasing the methods,
instruments, and areas of war; furthermore, that this direction of
movement has been necessary, in order to achieve and to maintain
prosperity in any nation.

This being the case, what forces exist that may reasonably be expected
to change that trend?

Three main forces are usually mentioned: Civilization, Commerce,
Christianity.

Before considering these it may be well to note Newton's first law
of motion, that every body will continue in a state of rest or of
uniform motion in a straight line unless acted on by some external
force; for though this law was affirmed of material bodies, yet its
applicability to large groups of men is striking and suggestive.
Not only do human beings have the physical attributes of weight and
inertia like other material bodies, but their mental organism,
while of a higher order than the physical, is as powerfully affected
by external forces. And though it is true that psychology has not
yet secured her Newton, and that no one has yet formulated a law
that expresses exactly the action of the minds and spirits of men
under the influence of certain mental and moral stimuli or forces,
yet we know that our minds and spirits are influenced by fear,
hope, ambition, hate, and so forth, in ways that are fairly well
understood and toward results that often can be predicted in advance.

Our whole theory of government and our laws of busine