392 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



most certainly, leading to a vast extension of the horrors 

 of war. The entire absence of ethical principle created 

 by militarism is especially shown in the fact that no 

 effective protest has been raised against this most 

 pernicious and suicidal practice. Here, again, the people 

 alone can take effective action, and the people want 

 educating. Common justice, common humanity, even 

 common sense, alike demand that this practice be abso- 

 lutely forbidden, and that any officer engaging in the 

 organization of the armies of semi-barbarous or alien 

 rulers should be declared an outlaw by the Government 

 in whose army he was trained, be demanded from the 

 employing government as a traitor to his country, 

 and the refusal to give him up be followed by an in- 

 stant declaration of war from all the civilized govern- 

 ments. 



Yet another point on which the people should be 

 educated is, that they should claim and exercise the right 

 to refuse, as soldiers, to act against their fellow-countrymen 

 or against other countries with whose people they have no 

 quarrel. Accepting the principle that the only just rights 

 of governments rest upon the consent of the governed, 

 what is termed rebellion is not a crime, but is usually the 

 just demand of a community for self-government, a 

 demand which, instead of being repressed by force, should 

 be tested by a plebiscite. And smaller disturbances, 

 termed riots, always arise from some injustice or supposed 

 injustice, and are not proper subjects for massacre by 

 armed soldiers. To use fire-arms against a crowd, and kill 

 or maim innocent persons, women and children, as almost 

 always happens, is to authorize murder. Whenever it 

 may be necessary to prevent violence by a mob, and the 

 available force of police is not sufficient, special constables 

 should be enrolled. But a far better plan would be to 

 organize the fire-brigades as coadjutors of the police, since 

 it is certain that no unarmed (or even armed) mob can 

 stand against the jet of a fire-engine or of several fire- 

 engines. The mob would instantly disperse, and be 

 rendered ridiculous without endangering life. 



Of course, any proposed system of arbitration to settle 



