t the
same as national wealth, and prosperous Trade is quite consistent with
national unhappiness. The average citizen of Switzerland is more
contented than the average citizen of any of the great commercial powers
of the world; and some of the causes that make for commercial
prosperity, causes of which War is not the least effective, actually
decrease the civic efficiency of the greater number of the population,
and reduce their chances of happiness. "If an expanding trade," writes
Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Graham,[62] "is the sure sign of national
happiness clearly the four countries, the figures of whose trade are
tabulated (Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentine) should be amongst the
happiest in the world. Yet still a doubt creeps in whether expanding
Trade is the sure test of happiness; for recently I have revisited some
of the countries of the River Plate that I knew thirty years ago, and it
appears to me that they were happier then. True, they were not so
rich.... Wealth has increased, but so has poverty...."

War is an artificial process for accelerating that concentration of
wealth in the hands of a small class which distinguishes the present
unholy stage of political development.[63]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 60: _The Great Illusion, passim_.]

[Footnote 61: This is not necessarily inconsistent with H. N.
Brailsford's similar remark (_The War of Steel and Gold_, p. 163): "War
is a folly from the standpoint of national self-interest; it may none
the less be perfectly rational from the standpoint of a small but
powerful governing class."]

[Footnote 62: Reviewing a work on South America in _The Nation_,
November 6, 1915.]

[Footnote 63: This process is further accelerated by the fact that the
War is being paid for very largely by means of Loans, subscribed
naturally by the richer classes; in future the richer classes will be
receiving the interest on these loans. But in order to pay this interest
the State will have to resort to taxation, some part of which will fall
presumably on the poor. See Professor Pigou's _Economy and Finance of
the War_.]

CHAPTER IV

Candide etait etendu dans la rue et couvert de debris. Il disait a
Pangloss: Helas! procure-moi un pen de vin et d'huile; je me meurs.
Ce tremblement de terre n'est pas une chose nouvelle, repondit
Pangloss; la ville de Lima eprouva les memes secousses en Amerique
l'annee passee; memes causes, memes effets: il y a certainement