386 World Federation and Social Progress 



removal of the obstacles to commerce and the 

 division of labour within its boundaries, and 

 the similarly great increase of prosperity which fol- 

 lowed the formation of the German Customs Union 

 in 1866 and the German Empire in 1871, we can 

 realize what enormous possibilities for increasing 

 human welfare will be the result of the federation 

 of the world. Jean de Bloch has estimated that 

 world federation, with the formation of a world's 

 customs union, would increase the average income 

 from its present value, about fifty-two centimes 

 per person and per day, to between twenty-eight 

 and thirty-three francs per day for each family of 

 five which included three workers. In other words, 

 the average standard of living for the human race 

 would be raised to ten times its present height as 

 the result of world federation. 



Nor is the money cost the chief waste of the 

 present system of international anarchy. Much 

 more important is the diversion of the energies 

 and thoughts of men from productive to unpro- 

 ductive purposes. Projects for social legislation 

 must be indefinitely postponed because all the 

 governments are forced to devote more than two- 

 thirds of the entire national revenue to war pur- 

 poses. At present the activities of all men are 

 divided into three parts: 



(i) The production of wealth {i. e. the adapta- 

 tion of the planet to their needs) ; (2) the prepara- 

 tion of a formidable military force for the purpose 

 of making conquest and despoiling their neigh- 



