manufacture of
armaments to remain in the hands of private companies; that it is very
tempting to see in the great Armament Firms the principal if not the
only cause of modern war. Examiners of German militarism, most of them
stupid enough to quote Nietzsche, may be pardoned for emphasising the
political influence of Krupp; and since every great Power has a more or
less efficiently organised Krupp of its own, it would be permissible to
suggest that war would be already obsolete but for the intensive
cultivation it receives for the benefit of Krupp, Creusot, Elswick and
the rest. But it would be wrong; our syllogism would have a badly
undistributed middle. It is true that Krupp in particular, who is the
actual owner of more than one popular German newspaper, and other
armament firms in a smaller degree, exercise an enormous influence on
national opinion, create their own markets by the threat of war, and
would go bankrupt if wars should cease. You may also say that their
shareholders live by prostituting the patriotism of their
fellow-citizens: in short, you may denounce them with the most expensive
rhetoric to be had without doing them any injustice. But the fact
remains that their position with regard to war is exactly analogous to
that of the great breweries with regard to drunkenness. They live by
taking advantage of human weakness. It is quite accurate, therefore, to
describe their earnings as immoral, but they are no more the cause of
the immorality they exploit and undoubtedly encourage, than makers of
seismological instruments are responsible for the occurrence of
earthquakes. The interests of one trade alone, however powerful in
itself, would never be strong enough to plunge a nation into war. They
are, of course, accessories to the crime; but the militarism they are
guilty of fostering has other primary explanations.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: Several books have been published giving details of the
Armament Ring and international "Kruppism." I don't think that the
language here used does any injustice to the facts.]

[Footnote 12: See below, Sec. 7.]

Sec. 2

Eugenics?

In this brief investigation of the possible causes of war, it must be
understood that what we want to find is what is called a "sufficient
reason" for its continued existence. The armament trades may supply the
means, the occasion, the stimulant, but their relation to it is not
essentially causal. Many writers of another school have a