IXCREASING CURSE OF EUROPEAN MILITANCY. 525 



war, in the increased taxation it always involves and in the impover- 

 ishment of our customers which it always produces, is certain, wide- 

 spread, and often enduring. The recent wars in Egypt and the Sou- 

 dan, whatever other results they may have, will assuredly have the 

 effect of tending still further to prolong and intensify our commercial 

 depression. 



If our manufacturers and merchants as a body would consider this 

 question in all its bearings they would surely arrive at the conclusion 

 that all war, wherever or by whomsoever waged, is bad for trade, 

 since it impoverishes alike the winner and the loser, the invader and 

 the invaded, while it inevitably destroys a number of actual or possible 

 customers. The moral arguments against war would doubtless be 

 more generally effective if it were clearly seen that, always and every- 

 where, its direct and necessary effect is to produce more or less of de- 

 pression of trade. 



But if war injures the capitalist, the manufacturer, and the trader, 

 still more does it injure the worker, and on this point I can not do bet- 

 ter than quote the forcible words of Mr. Mongredien.* After describ- 

 ing the various destructive agencies and methods of war, he says : 

 " As wealth dwindles somebody must suffer, and the suffering mainly 

 falls on the poor and weak. The capitalist is mulcted of part of his 

 wealth, but he can wait. The labor-seller is mulcted of the necessaries 

 of life, and he and his dear ones can not wait. The less there is to 

 produce the less there is to distribute. Need we say which class it 

 is that will run short ? It is on you, labor-sellers of the world, that 

 the burden chiefly falls. It is you who are the slayers and the slain. 

 You form the rank and file who deal the blows and on whom the 

 blows are dealt. To your chiefs belong the honor and the rewards. 

 As for you, you are under contract to suffer and to cause suffering ; to 

 inflict and to endure death ; to destroy instead of creating wealth ; 

 and to use every effort to suppress the fund out of which labor is paid. 

 The war-system, pernicious to every class, is a special curse to yours. 

 Are you content to view it as a necessity ? In this our protest against 

 it, we look for your special assistance by thought, word, and pen. 

 Public opinion is made up of assenting units." Since these words were 

 written the working-men of England have obtained the means not only 

 of verbally protesting, but of actually deciding against war, if it so 

 pleases them. If they will vote for no representatives but such as will 

 pledge themselves to oppose all but strictly defensive wars, and never 

 to begin a war until we are actually attacked, then war will rarely 

 occur, war expenditure will be reduced, and, so soon as other nations 

 follow our example and that of the United States, one of the chief 

 eauses of depression of trade will cease to exist. 



* "Wealth Creation," by Augustus Mongrieden, p. 115. 



