UNIVERSAL MILITARY SERVICE 13 



than men who see no outlook but that of their 

 own little selves, and care for no object but 

 that of their own immediate profit. 



And finally, a nation should wish to improve 

 morally. If it do not so wish, it will not 

 improve morally : on the contrary, it will grow 

 less moral, for it certainly cannot stand still. 

 Whatever may be the effect on morals of 

 soldiering, in a nation of civilians protected by 

 volunteers, it seems certain that one great moral 

 improvement might very well be originated by 

 the adoption of universal military service ; and 

 that is a desire for justice in all human dealings, 

 springing up from observation of practical justice 

 illustrated by the general obligation to perform 

 a great national duty. Not that this improvement 

 has necessarily followed in those countries where 

 military service is now universal, but that it should 

 follow in a country where freedom approaches 

 reality, and where such service, hitherto un- 

 known, can be conducted on right principles. 



When the defence of a nation is so organised 

 that the majority of the people of that nation 

 make no sacrifice whatever of time and means 

 in the service of their country, there must be 

 gross injustice ; and such injustice comes, in 

 that country, to be looked upon as a necessary 

 phase of the national life, as almost a kind of 

 justice. A certain number of men who care a 

 little more than others for their country, in whom 

 a sense of national claim is not yet wholly dead, 

 come forward to be trained : a certain number of 

 employers who are like-minded consent to lose 



