546 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
part of the world. As a broad generalisation it seemed to me true that, just as 
municipal economic life had been absorbed during the later Middle Ages in 
national life, so national life, both as regards capital and labour, was likely to be 
absorbed in cosmopolitan economic life. Mr. Norman Angell has put that argu- 
ment much more effectively by showing how closely the prosperity of each nation 
is, through the credit system, intertwined with the prosperity of other countries. 
I am, however, now inclined to think that my forecast of cosmopolitan economic 
progress and my disparagement of nationality as a factor in economic life were 
mistaken. 
However fluid the active elements of economic life may be, there are elements 
of fixity to be taken into account if prosperity is to be stable. There must 
be the organisation of government, within a definite area in which its control 
is recognised, if men are to pursue their avocations in security, and coercive 
authority must lay down the limits within which private interest can be allowed 
free play and can be rightly trusted to bring about public good. National 
organisation, with a naval and military side, is the most convenient means for 
giving fair play to native races, and for exercising police control throughout the 
world. National organisation can do much to promote economic prosperity 
within a country, by guiding the direction of capital; and coercive authority is 
being called on to control the action of trusts in America and of trade unions 
_here. National authority may be utilised not only to put down abuses, but to 
foster the permanent material welfare of the country. 
We all recognise that there must be a firm economic basis, on which the police 
of the world, and peace between highly developed countries, may be based ; and 
the crucial question is whether this can be best secured by (i) a cosmopolitanism 
which undermines national economic life, or (ii) by an internationalism built up 
out of a group of strong and vigorous nationalities? The study of British com- 
merce at the present time is of great assistance in deciding whether the present 
trend of affairs is in favour of cosmopolitanism or of internationalism. Great 
Britain alone among the countries of the world has made herself the exponent of 
economic cosmopolitanism : if she is advancing more rapidly than countries which 
rely on nationalist organisation, then the cause of cosmopolitanism is advancing ; 
but, otherwise, it appears that economic nationalism still has a future before 
it. So far as I can judge with reference to Great Britain and her commercial 
rivals, and with reference to different branches of British trade, the success of 
economic cosmopolitanism, on which the hopes of universal peace are commonly 
based, is very doubtful. The question concerns not only the material basis of 
peace propagandism, but its moral influence. Peace propagandism has been in- 
clined to disparage the ‘blind dogma of patriotism,’ but if this movement could 
link itself with patriotic sentiment it would gain in force. The cause of peace 
both among civilised and uncivilised peoples would prosper if it lost its anti- 
patriotic character and came to rely on the influence and the relationships of 
great nationalities. It is important that the people of any land should value 
the sense of national independence; it is well for them to attain a sense of - 
national mission. Success or failure in the art of war depends on conditions that 
lead to success or failure in other arts; the benefit to character lies, not in the 
fighting itself, but in the possession of ideals for which the citizen feels that 
it is worth while to make a sacrifice. It is good for any man to be able to draw 
inspiration from the past of his country and to cherish ideals for its future. 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 
Discussion on Labour Disputes. 
(i) Methods of Industrial Peace. 
By Professor S. J. Coapman, M.A., M.Com. 
The first important point to notice is that it must always be very difficult, 
if not impossible, to enforce any course of action upon groups of people who are 
associated in large numbers for a common economic purpose. For success in such 
