176 Declining Effectiveness of Force 



overwhelmed with the proofs of the economic fu- 

 tiUty of war, they fall back upon the claim that the 

 causes of war are ideal and moral, not economic and 

 material. Thus Admiral Mahan, whose intellectual 

 power has placed him in the front rank of the de- 

 fenders of militarism, says in one of his latest works : 



The armaments of the European States now are 

 not so much for protection against conquest as to 

 secure to themselves the utmost possible share of the 

 unexploited or imperfectly exploited regions of the 

 world — the outlying markets or storehouses of raw 

 material, which, under national control, shall minister 

 to national emoluments.^ 



This naked statement of the materialistic pur- 

 pose of armament for aggression and exploitation 

 is in striking contrast with Admiral Mahan 's 

 definition of the purpose of armament in an article 

 written shortly afterwards,^ on "The Folly of The 

 Hague." Here he holds up armament as the 

 beneficent power which protects the quiet and 

 the weak, and allows them to sleep securely. His 

 new point of view is : 



Armament is the organization and consecration of 

 force as a factor in the maintenance of justice, order, 

 and peace. It is the highest expression of that ele- 



* Mahan, Armaments and Arbitration, or The Place of Force in 

 the International Relations of States, 1912, p. 113. 



* The Semi-Monthly Magazine Section, Sunday, October 28, 

 19 13. Published for a syndicate of American newspapers by the 

 Abbott & Briggs Company, New York. 



