Militaristic Sophistries 133 



tion, and therefore without war, there would have 

 been no civilization. Prof. Lester F. Ward as- 

 serts that slavery has been the sole means by which 

 man has been enabled to attain the industrial 

 stage. Therefore war, which has rendered slavery 

 possible, has been the cause of the civilization of 

 our species, because it could not have been realized, 

 naturally, without industry. In the same way 

 others affirm, for example, that the human spirit 

 would never have attained the phase of positive 

 thought if it had not traversed the errors of 

 animism. I am not here concerned with the 

 truth or falsity of the assertion that without these 

 transitory phases the desirable later stages could 

 not have been reached. Even if we adopt com- 

 pletely false assumptions, as that civilization 

 would have been impossible without war, the con- 

 clusion does not follow that war was a good thing. 

 The correct conclusion is that the true good would 

 have been civilization without war, industrial 

 labour without slavery, the positive spirit in 

 thought without animism. War, slavery, and 

 animism have been only evils, if for no other 

 reason than that they have represented a loss of 

 time. 



To many the discussion of these sophistries 

 will seem useless and academic. Slavery and 

 animism have been abolished, they will say, and 

 it is not necessary to prove that war has not been 

 a good thing in the past. All we have to demon- 

 strate is that it has served its purpose and is not 



