PEACE AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL REFORM. 239 



society is exempt from this law. Whatever the character of the 

 forces in operation, they will govern all classes alike; they will 

 govern them despite the precepts of moralists, pedagogic or ecclesi- 

 astic, or the regulations of despots, autocratic or democratic. 



However closely history may be interrogated, it can not be made 

 to disclose a truth more profound or important. Yet it is one not 

 only seldom admitted but constantly violated. "With amazing per- 

 versity, social reformers close their eyes to the significance of the fact 

 that the dominance of pacific activity since the days of mediaeval 

 disorder has slowly brought about, without particular effort on their 

 part and often in spite of them, the social and political ameliora- 

 tions that now exist. Scornful of science and impatient of delay, 

 they refuse to act upon the commonplace that human society in the 

 future is to be bettered in no other way than it has been in the past. 

 Hence they do not attempt to promote the growth of the free indus- 

 trial institutions of peace that have lifted society to its present level. 

 On the contrary, they strive to promote the growth of the discredited 

 institutions of political despotism. What the result of this policy 

 will be requires neither experiment nor experience to tell. The law 

 of social science, whose operation I have attempted to illustrate, war- 

 rants the prediction that it will be disastrous. For, differing in 

 degree, not in kind, the aggressions of government are as vicious and 

 destructive as the aggressions of conflict. Be the motive ever so 

 noble, not the smallest sum can be taken from a man for an object he 

 does not approve without the commission of an act as repugnant to 

 justice as the theft of a marauder, ISTor can he be forced to take the 

 shortest step from a line of conduct, not because it violates the rights 

 of his neighbors but because it fails to accord with their notions of 

 duty, without enslavement. Neither can the political contests made 

 necessary by this aggression be carried on without the discipline of an 

 army and the ethics of devastation. When, therefore, it is proposed 

 to revive the institutions of feudalism, the products of war, to add to 

 the wealth and happiness of men, the products of peace, only a return 

 to the evils that have never failed to impoverish and degrade them 

 can possibly occur. 



But the extension of the free industrial institutions of peace 

 threatens no such disaster. They involve no aggression ; they permit 

 neither theft nor enslavement. Being voluntary organizations to 

 which a man may belong or not, just as tastes and interests incline 

 him, he is not forced to part with his property except in one of the 

 ways that must prevail in all societies truly civilized — namely, by 

 gift or contract. Although membership of an organization, no matter 

 what it be, requires a surrender of freedom to a greater or less extent, 

 it is not compulsory, and the rights surrendered may be resumed at 



