ad, not because they impatiently love violence, but because
they cannot stand forever the social strain and economic consequence of
war--what were we doing? We were launching battleships which cost
$42,000,000 to build, which cost $2,000,000 a year to maintain and
which, in a few years, would be towed out to sea to be used as an
experimental target to try out some new armour-piercing shell. I
wonder if our children's children will look back on that spectacle and
call it practical. In 1912 the naval expenses of this country were
about $136,000,000. In 1921 our naval expenses were about
$641,000,000--approximately five times greater in nine years. So over
all the earth war preparations were pyramiding with an ever
accelerating momentum. And because any man can see that we must stop
sometime, we have been trying desperately to stop now; to turn our
backs upon this mad endeavour to build civilization upon a
materialistic basis, bulwarked by physical force; to turn our faces
toward spiritual forces, fair play, reasonable conference, good-will,
service and co-operation.

Yet how hard it is to make the change effective! Long ages ago in the
primeval jungle, the dogs' ancestors used to turn around three times in
the thicket before they lay down, that they might make a comfortable
spot to nestle in, and now your highbred Pekingese will turn around
three times upon his silken cushion although there is no earthly reason
why he should. So difficult is it to breed beasts and men out of their
inveterate habits. So hard is it going to be to make men give up the
idea that force is a secure foundation for international relationships.
Yet somehow that change must be made. They are having trouble with the
housing problem in Tokyo and the reason is simple. Tokyo is built on
earthquake ground and it is insecure. You cannot put great houses on
unstable foundations. One story, two stories, three stories--that is
about as high as they dare go. But in New York City one sees the
skyscrapers reaching up their sixty stories into the air. The
explanation is not difficult: Manhattan Island is solid rock. If you
are going to build great structures you must have great foundations.
And civilization is a vast and complicated structure. We cannot build
it on physical force. That is too shaky. We must build it upon
spiritual foundations.

There are those who suppose that this can be done by progress through
the scientific control of l