SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL 407 



to countenance a needless war than mobs burning its own cities and 

 killing its own citizens. In New York, London, Berlin and Paris are 

 business houses and representatives of every country in the world. 

 How could any nation wish to destroy or to permit the destruction of 

 these cities? 



Ease of travel and quickness of communication hold the large na- 

 tions and empires together and tend to make the whole world one 

 people. Eacial prejudices are sometimes aggravated by close contact; 

 but the acquaintance that comes with business and travel, with knowl- 

 edge of politics and customs, with daily news cabled about the woi'ld, 

 makes foreigners human like ourselves, and killing them becomes 

 murder rather than war. The first cabin and the steerage of every 

 transatlantic liner conduce to acquaintance and friendliness. Ease and 

 cheapness of transportation have led to immigration on a vast scale. 

 Many peoples must include 'New York when they enumerate their 

 larger cities. Immigrants and their children in this country are num- 

 bered by the tens of millions. There are more people with Irish blood 

 in the United States than in Ireland, and the same condition will in 

 the end hold for other nationalities smaller than our own. Men war 

 with their own kindred, but do not readily unite with aliens against 

 them. The admixture of races, which the applications of science have 

 so greatly promoted, surely makes for peace. This is especially the case 

 when close communication is maintained with the mother country, such 

 as is now supplied by the post-office, money order system, newspapers, 

 ease of travel and other conditions of a civilization based on the appli- 

 cations of science. 



Science has given us democracy, it has given us ample means of 

 subsistence, it has given us commerce and intercommunication, and 

 these three achievements are the principal factors which have lessened 

 warfare and will eventually lead to its complete abolition. Other con- 

 tributions of science, though less momentous, are by no means unim- 

 portant. Warfare is now in large measure applied science, and this 

 tends towards its decrease. Wars between nations with scientific equip- 

 ment and savage and barbarous peoples are no longer waged on equal 

 terms and are of short duration. The extermination, despoliation and 

 subjugation of the non-Caucasian races may be the world's great trag- 

 edy, and in so far as some of these peoples are able to adopt our science 

 there will be a readjustment which may be written in blood or may be 

 a triumph of common sense and justice. However this may be, the in- 

 vincibility that science has conferred on the western nations has made 

 them safe from attack and invasion, and while it may on occasion have 

 led to wanton aggression, it has, on the whole, limited warfare. If we 

 call to mind the centuries of invasion and threats of invasion by North- 

 men, Ottomans and Saracens, we can appreciate the value of the means 

 of defense which science has given to the civilized nations. 



