Economic Futility of Force 193 



mic welfare, would be about as sensible and as 

 relevant to the object desired as for the heart to 

 attack the lungs, or for the right hand to cut off 

 the left. 



Where force is not used for purposes of total 

 destruction, but is used to cause only a partial 

 death or mutilation of the economic rights of 

 others, its apparent effectiveness is only temporary, 

 because the injustice which it produces results 

 in unrest, maladjustment, cumulative opposition 

 and resentment, a combination of opposing forces, 

 and final overthrow. In other words, the result 

 of the attempt to use physical force to secure 

 economic advantage produces automatically 

 enough force on the opposing side to neutralize 

 the physical force of aggression. This neutraliza- 

 tion of physical force results either in an unstable 

 equilibrium or in a deadlock, and a decision can 

 only be reached by removing the struggle to the 

 higher planes of economic, political, and intellectual 

 forces. 



In studying the political irrelevance of physical 

 force we come upon one of the doctrines most 

 confidently affirmed by the philosophy of force 

 — that the State has been formed by violence. 

 This doctrine has been illustrated by quotations 

 from the English sociologist Herbert Spencer 

 (p. 8), the German sociologist Ratzenhofer (p. 

 10), and the American sociologist Ward (p. 11). 

 According to these scientists, the State has been 

 created by violence, and they afi&rm confidently 

 13 



