another state.

This armed force has been a prominent factor in the life of every
sovereign state and independent tribe, from history's beginning,
and is no less a factor now. No instance can be found of a sovereign
state without its appropriate armed force, to guard its sovereignty,
and preserve that freedom from external control, without which
freedom it ceases to exist as a sovereign state.

The armed force has always been a matter of very great expense. It
has always required the anxious care of the government and the people.
The men comprising it have always been subjected to restraint and
discipline, compelled to undergo hardships and dangers greater than
those of civil life, and developed by a training highly specialized
and exacting.

The armed force in every state has had not only continuous existence
always, but continuous, potential readiness, if not continuous
employment; and the greatest changes in the mutual relations of
nations have been brought about by the victory of the armed force
of one state over the armed force of another state. This does not
mean that the fundamental causes of the changes have been physical,
for they have been psychological, and have been so profound and so
complex as to defy analysis; but it does mean that the actual and
immediate instrument producing the changes has been physical force;
that physical force and physical courage acting in conjunction,
of which conjunction war is the ultimate expression, have always
been the most potent instruments in the dealings of nations with
each other.

Is there any change toward peaceful methods now?

No, on the contrary; war is recognized as the most potent method
still; the prominence of military matters is greater than ever
before; at no time in the past has interest in war been so keen
as at the present, or the expenditure of blood and money been so
prodigal; at no time before has war so thoroughly engaged the intellect
and energy of mankind.

In other words, the trend of the nations has been toward a clearer
recognition of the efficacy of military power, and an increasing
use of the instrumentality of war.

This does not mean that the trend of the nations has been regular;
for, on the contrary, it has been spasmodic. If one hundred photographs
of the map of Europe could be taken, each photograph representing
in colors the various countries as they appeared upon the map at
one hundred different times, and if those hundred photo