Force and a Competitive Civilization 259 



known In times when no sort of close contact between 

 them existed. This explains why the mighty develop- 

 ment of commercial, literary, and personal intercourse 

 did not fulfil the expectation that it would prove a 

 power for peace. ^ 



The belief that society is based upon force is 

 widespread among the members of the legal 

 profession, who come in contact chiefly with 

 abnormal social phenomena and with the mechan- 

 ism by which society deals with those who refuse 

 to co-operate. The Roman Law, in which author- 

 ity is derived from above, is especially favourable 

 to the development of the militaristic philosophy. 

 But law is fundamentally a question of determining 

 under what conditions the force of a state shall be 

 exercised (conditions which are defined by Magna 

 Charta, habeas corpus^ Bill of Rights, etc.), and the 

 greatest minds in the legal profession have always 

 recognized that the ultimate sanction and the 

 power which directs these conditions for the use 

 of force is public opinion. ^ The development of 

 popular government is the story of the modifica- 

 tion of the conditions under which force is used. 

 For a democracy in which authority is derived from 

 below, and which can rest securely only upon 

 foundations of justice, nothing is more important 

 than a clear understanding of the relative r61es 



' Quoted in War and Peace, July, 19 15. 



' David Jayne Hill's World Organization as Affected by the Nct- 

 ture of the Modern State, is an illiiminating study of force as a 

 factor in political relations. 



