THE EVOLUTION OF HIGH WAGES. 757 



force. "War is destructive: commerce is constructive. Every phase 

 of war is of necessity conducted by methods which have no defense 

 in morals. It requires the employment of spies, the use of false- 

 hood, the ambuscade. Its greatest successes are achieved in getting 

 the advantage of the enemy and striking him in the back. The art 

 or invention of war consists in making each instrument of slaughter 

 more and more effective, the advantage in the end falling to the gun 

 of longest range, unless success is attained even under bad manage- 

 ment by the yet greater incapacity of the enemy. 



Commerce exists by the law of service. Its benefits are mutual. 

 Its conduct demands probity and integrity. " The trust reposed in 

 and deserved by the many creates the opportunity for the fraud of 

 the few." War can only exist so long as the private soldiers are 

 ignorant on the one side or the other. Had not the Confederate 

 private soldiers in the civil war in this country been ignorant of the 

 evil influence of slavery upon themselves they would not have fought 

 in a war for the maintenance of slavery. If the conscript soldiers of 

 Spain had not been kept in ignorance of the abuses of the rights of 

 the Cubans by their own oppression at home, there would have been 

 no cause for interference on the part of this country, and there could 

 have been no war. "WTien the men behind the guns in Germany 

 become fully informed of their own rights, as they are rapidly be- 

 coming, they may cease to submit to the domination of the classes 

 who carry the sword. The mediaeval Junker who now assumes the 

 powers of emperor will then become as helpless as his mediaeval pro- 

 totype, the knight in armor, became when gunpowder was invented. 

 The brute rule of blood and iron will then give place to the intel- 

 ligent rule of commerce and mutual service. 



Taxes are collected at the barriers which part European nations 

 from each other by duties on their respective imports to the amount 

 of many hundred million dollars, and yet that revenue does not suffice 

 to support the armies which except for those barriers to mutual 

 service would not be required and could not be sustained. 



As surely as the mental factor in production giving direction 

 to the forces of liature evolves increasing welfare, so surely will the 

 brute force of war and the survival of the fighting instinct in man 

 be suppressed by that spread of intelligence and common sense which 

 is generated in the very conduct of commerce itself. 



Recent statistics show that since the end of 1869 the postal traffic in 

 France has nearly tripled, the telegraphic network has increased about nine 

 times, the tonnage of the railways and interior na\4gation has doubled, 

 deposits in savings banks have risen from !(;150,000,000 to $800,000,000 ; and 

 other items of economical prosperity have shown corresponding growth. 



