The Arbitration Treaty 187 



to problems that press for solution, and no satisfac- 

 tory solution can be reached in the midst of this 

 monstrous armed peace. Competition has reached 

 a point where no nation can afford to divert a con- 

 siderable percentage of its population from indus- 

 trial pursuits. Each nation, in order to maintain 

 its rank in the world, is called upon to devote its 

 utmost energies to agriculture, manufactures, and 

 commerce. Moreover, the economic disturbances 

 due to the withdrawal of so many men from the 

 work of production are closely connected with 

 the discontent which finds vent in the wild schemes 

 of socialists, communists, and anarchists. There 

 is no other way of beginning the work of social re- 

 demption but by a general disarmament ; and this 

 opinion has for some years been gaining strength 

 in Europe. It is commonly felt that in one way 

 or another the state of armed peace will have to 

 be abandoned. 



In a lecture at the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain in 1880, I argued that the contrast be- 

 tween the United States, with a population quite 

 freed from the demands of militarism, and the con- 

 tinent of Europe, with its enormous armaments 

 useless for productive purposes, could not long 

 be maintained ; that American competition would 

 soon come to press so severely upon Europe as to 



