Fear Degrades the Human Race 153 



races. In England, for example, the problem of 

 unemployment has been urgent and almost 

 continually present. At times the number of 

 unemployed has run up into the millions. If it 

 had been possible for Great Britain to cut down 

 its expenditures for national defence, this would 

 have released capital for productive purposes 

 and given employment to these millions of men. ^ 



Moreover, myriads of the population of Great 

 Britain live constantly below the bread-line, never 

 having enough to eat, physically weakened, un- 

 able to resist the attacks of disease. The statistics 

 of the recruiting officers represent a tragic national 

 drama of physical degeneration of millions of the 

 men of Great Britain, due to insufficient nourish- 

 ment, living in the slums, etc. If it had not been 

 necessary to divert so large a proportion of the 

 British national income to the unproductive pur- 

 poses of armament, more would have been avail- 

 able for employment in productive enterprises, 

 for paying a living wage, which would in turn have 

 increased the productive power of individual 

 labourers; more could have been devoted to social 

 reforms, such as the abolition of slums under a 

 rational system of city-planning. By what species 

 of argument can the philosophy of force maintain 

 that the state of misery in which these millions 

 are compelled to live contributes to the progress 



^ Bastiat has estimated that when one man is released from 

 military or naval services the equivalent capital released at the 

 same time is sufficient to give employment to two men. 



