2o6 Declining Effectiveness of Force 



convinced that the vote should be given to unedu- 

 cated negroes. In the political domain, as well as 

 in the economic realm, physical force is irrelevant 

 and ineffective; the victory is obtained only 

 through struggle in the higher plane, and by 

 intellectual forces. 



The political futility of force is recognized in 

 all enlightened communities where the party in 

 power, although actually in command of the mili- 

 tary forces of the country, refrains from using this 

 physical force to try to keep itself in power when 

 defeated at the polls. In socially unenlightened 

 communities, such as Venezuela or Mexico, in so 

 far as the belief in the political effectiveness of 

 physical force obtained, its real futility was de- 

 monstrated by the unceasing revolutions, and the 

 degradation of civilization, which carried down 

 with it those who attempted to advance their 

 welfare or obtain political objects by an irrelevant 

 instrument. Society and political progress are only 

 possible when the irrelevance of physical force to 

 obtain political objects is realized by the members 

 of a community. 



The most striking illustration of the reaHzation 

 of the irrelevance of physical force in intellectual 

 struggles is found in the cessation of the wars of 

 religion. Lecky has traced with a master's hand 

 the process by which religious persecutions de- 

 clined and the wars of religion disappeared as the 

 result of the intellectual discussions and the rising 

 spirit of rationalism which undermined and 



