192 Declining Effectiveness of Force 



upon the one who employs the violence. If two 

 tribes live on opposite sides of a river or swamp, 

 with no contact or vital circulation between them, 

 it is a matter of indifference to one of the tribes 

 if the other is destroyed by a flood or an earth- 

 quake. But suppose the river is bridged or the 

 swamp is drained, so that the two tribes come into 

 contact, and a vital circulation is formed, a 

 division of labour begins to take place. One 

 tribe has, let us suppose, a better soil or a more 

 favourable climate, and devotes itself chiefly to 

 agriculture. The other tribe may possess mines 

 of coal and iron; it may specialize upon manu- 

 factures, exchanging its products with members 

 of the first tribe for food. After interdependence 

 is established in this way, as the result of the 

 division of labour, the fate of each tribe is no 

 longer a matter of indifference to the other. If 

 the one which specializes in agriculture is wiped 

 out by a flood or an earthquake, the members of 

 the other tribe may starve to death; and if the 

 manufacturing society is exterminated, the agricul- 

 tural society will suffer for want of clothing, shelter, 

 tools. It will be forced to return to the condition 

 which preceded the establishment of the division 

 of labour. Its civilization will be degraded, and 

 many of the members of the tribe will die off. For 

 either of the tribes to exterminate the other after 

 interdependence has been established, would be 

 an act of suicide. For one tribe to attack the 

 other with the object of advancing its own econo- 



