2o8 Declining Effectiveness of Force 



of the use of this force as soon as its futility was 

 recognized. 



It is the cataclysmic theory of history which 

 prevents us from realizing the superior effective- 

 ness of intellectual forces over physical forces, 

 since intellectual processes must be classed among 

 the real and invisible causes of progress. If after 

 the Great War the democratic forces in Ger- 

 many gain a victory over the Junkers and get 

 possession of the German Government, the su- 

 perficial methods of the cataclysmic theory will 

 doubtless lead to a widespread belief that this 

 political revolution and the resulting progress 

 were caused by the war and constitute a justifica- 

 tion for much of its suffering and destruction. 

 The steady growth of the German Social Demo- 

 cracy during the past generation; the fact that it 

 has gained one per cent, of the total German vote 

 on the average every year for the past twenty 

 years; that in 1912 the Social Democrats had 

 secured 34% of the total Germany vote, and that 

 the continuance of this irresistible progress must 

 inevitably have given them the control of the 

 Government within a few years, will probably be 

 entirely lost sight of. Yet the victory of demo- 

 cracy will nevertheless be due primarily to these 

 intellectual forces, and to the work of education, 

 propaganda, organization, and agitation which the 

 Social Democrats have carried on, year after year, 

 and which the cruder methods of the Junkers, 

 with their reliance upon the political power and 



