i6 
LAND & WATER 
November 30, 1916 
holds the oak, the future }iopes of mankind ? If there 
is such a theory the recognition of it and gradual ad- 
herence to it ofthe nations will ensure ]x>ace. for it will 
ensure the inner unitv of intention and aspiration which 
lieace symbolises. But \nitil the day of recognition dawns 
of what use is it to cry jx^ace, peace, when there is no peace ? 
Could we but realise once lor all that acts sj^ring from 
ideas and haye their roots in the mind, we should forego 
such idle clamour and turn our attention to the true 
seat of the evil. 
It is between two such rival, incompatible and forever 
^antagonistic theories of life that the present war is waged, 
liach theory commands the devotion of its own side, and 
that being so I would not say that the war, even on 
Prussia's side, is an unjust war. It is not unjust for 
Prussia, for what can a nation do other than die for a 
cause it believes to be worth dying for ? Nor is Prussia's 
ideal, the tyrannic ideal, wholly base. It has not been 
productive of evil only. In the past it has done some 
great things. It has been the motive of many powerful 
Empires which, in days when barbarism aTid anarchy 
prevailed, have ensured a certain iron discipline and 
order and thus secured the primary conditions of future 
advance. Its place and useful purpose in man's history 
are marked, and in its own day it had its justification. 
But it was essentially limited, for the sy.stem of order 
by force which it imposed was fatal to the free play of the 
human faculties in which the ultimate hope of progress 
resides. The day was bound to come when t>Tanny 
would be challenged by Liberty, and that day has come. 
Against the discipline imposed by a minority we have 
set the effort and experiment participated in by all. It 
is not only that tyrann\- jiaralyses initiative and 
development, th;it society under "its control remains 
passive, obeying not originating, making no effort of its 
own, not encouraged to exert its own faculties, not 
tempted to advance on the stepping stones of its own 
blunders to fuller knowledge : nor is it only that 
liberty is life and growth, because liberty is inward effort, 
that what it does badly to-day it will do better to-monow, 
that it is a perpetual incentive acting within society and 
stimulating it to perpetual endea\'our. There is a further 
contrast which more than any has decided the aspect of 
the present struggle. Liberty acts upon \Vhole popu- 
lations, upon all classes, leaving none behind, con- 
solidating and uniting all in the same effort. All share its 
inspiration, all are in the movement. Free nations ad- 
vance in their integrity as the planets roll through space, 
for the whole of society is animated by the same inward 
impulse of self-direction and self-control. Liberty in a 
word is the hope "of the masses. Has anj'thing been 
known in history more wonderful and curious than the 
gradual recognition of this ideal during the last himdred 
years by the bulk of the people of Europe, as, nation by 
nation, impelled by the wavering, dumb motives of the 
popular instinct, they have taken sides with the forces of 
liberty ? Is there an answer to the question how to 
live ? The legions of liberty believe they have found 
the answer. In development through use, in the free 
exercise of all man's endowments and capabilities does 
the hope of mankind consist. 
It is evident that when such deep and far-reaching 
impulses as these come into opposition, there can be no 
c]uestion of artificially maintained peace. Quis custodid 
ipsos custodcs ? We are all in\olved. In these days of 
common and universal intercourse ideas recognise no 
frontiers. Tryanny attracts to itself all kindred govern- 
ments and States. Liberty draws to its standard all 
nationalities inspired by that principle. This is the scale 
on which the wars of the future will tend to be waged, and 
upon such conflicts no arbitrary system of control can act. 
It is no longer a question of holding a fretful realm in 
awe but of holding the world itself in awe, which cannot 
be done save by securing the interference of another 
planet. Yet there is a sense in which war itself will work 
out the solution ; for in the end that principle will 
triumph in war which, because it holds the future of 
mankind, will be sustained with the more inflexible 
pertinacity and endurance ; and its triumph confirming 
its authority and giving it room to act, will further its 
more complete acceptance and finally result in the estab- 
lishment of a common ideal. In this sense the present 
war, a war to enthrone liberty as life's guiding motive, 
may truly enough be called a war to abolish war. 
The Coming Trade War 
By Arthur Kitson 
[Since this article was written, Mr. A. J. Hobson, a leading 
Sheffield manufacturer, has publicly stated : " The nation has 
to remember that it was not only in war that jor the last 
twenty years at least Germany had been maturing her plans. 
Those who kneiv the commercial and industrial history 
of this country would say that her preparations were just as 
far advanced ' to destroy our industrial independence as 
they were to destroy our political independence. Britons had 
to realise that they had to fight for permanent industrial 
freedom from terrorism, just as they had to fight for it in 
the political and national sphere ."] 
ALTHOUGH the vast majority of the British 
people shed their party politics the day the 
German troops invaded Belgium, a small section 
found this operation disagreeable — if not 
impossible. And much as we may deplore the fact, 
we shall be compelled to hear a revi\-al of the centuries- 
old discussion of Free Trade versus Protection as soon 
as peace is within sight. In view of this threatened re- 
crudescence of a dispute that ought to have been finally 
settled long ago, it is necessary that the preparation for the 
economic war which is to follow should be made at once. 
We now realise the appalling price in blood and wealth 
our military unprcparedness has cost us and our Allies, 
and we know that much of the responsibility for this 
impreparedness lies at the door of the busy little group 
of pacifist fanatics who thirty months ago assured us 
that the warnings uttered regarding German military 
aggression, was a stupid and. wicked invention of our 
jingoes and hireling journalists ! We arc now told by the 
selfsame group that " to pretend that all this activity 
(i.e., German industrial, commercial and financial enter- 
prises) is in the main a screen and an instrument of 
Prus'.ian State policy, aimed to penetrate all countries 
of the world commercially and financialh', in order to 
convert this economic into political control, is idle vapour- 
ing, whether it proceeds from angry bagmen or from states- 
men who should be ' responsible.' " This writer acds : 
The notion that all tliis expanding German trade and 
finance have been the cats-paw of the aggressive Gei-- 
man State is baseless. The capitalists who rule German 
industry, trade and finance are out for profit, not for 
political aims, and their success would have been impos- 
sible on any other terms. 
The writer of this. Professor J. A. Hobson {The^ Ncio 
Protectionism) is the most widely-read Free Trade 
" authority " in this country, whose opinion is accepted 
by certain Radical politicians as conclusive. One woidd 
have thought that after all the innumerable exposures of 
German State intrigues in America, Russia, Poland, 
Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Turkey, Roumania, 
Greece, Spain, Mexico, Africa and elsewhere, any doubt 
as to German commerce and finance being employed 
by the Pan-Germanists as instruments for German 
political aggression, would have been definitely set at 
rest for all time. To deny this aggression is to deny 
the evidence of one's own senses as well as the 
testimony of clouds of witnesses in all countries. 
To attempt to argue with those who meet known facts 
with brazen denials, is a waste of ^ime. . . . But 
there is one question in relation to this subject wliicli 
needs consideration. According to certain Free Trade 
WTiters, like Hobson, international trade is merely an 
exchange of goods or services, in which the gains or benefits 
are mutual and equal. This being so, how can such trade 
be termed " aggi-essive ? " How can there be a trade 
" war " ? " Imports " they say " must be paid for by 
exports or not at all, and these exports consist of either 
