14 
LAND & WATER 
December 14, 19 16 
'.owest terms, it may bo said with some confident that 
Mnce the time of the Industrial licvohition the mihsed 
svorld, with Great Britain at its head, has been iincon- 
sciously engaged in turning itself into a burglar's piu adise, 
while Germany for the last fifty years has been as^nhionsly 
l>reparing herself to be the chief' burglar. This is tiu- mmesis 
of a civilisation founded on material wealth and a. tuated 
by covet ousness. WTiat is most amazing is the utt t-r lack 
of prevision, on the part of those chiefly engaji^ d m the 
process, that this would be the actual result. 1 -nppose 
•we ha\e been deluded bv the notion, that nation-, like 
decent individuals, might "be trusted to respect each other s 
property. But that, as events have now prostd, is 
far too 'favourable a View of the existing state of niter- 
national morals -that is of the morals of governments 
in I heir relations to one anotl^^r. 
Had we known what we now know about these 
things— and what perhaps we ought to ha\c known 
j^.tore— we should have seen that in buildin.; up the 
British Empire as it is to-day, and in accunuilating the 
wealth which it represents, we were creating tin- biggest 
\mzc that has ever tempted the predatory in>lingts of 
thieves, ^\'e should have foreseen the day when the 
thieves would get to work upon our treasun- liouse. 
We should have remembered that we, at times, liad done 
a little thieving ourseh es. We should have realistd that 
thieves were at large and active, and we should l\.i\ <; per- 
ceived them prowling about under the thin di-i;uise of 
" diplomatic negotiations." What the effect ol this pre- 
\isi()n would have been, had it existed, is doubtful. It 
might have led us to create a great army and build a 
greater na\y for the protection of our hoard. Or it might 
ha\e led to a result of far profounder signilicance— 
io asking ourselves ivhcthcr a civilisation based on material 
'ucalth is not after all a fool's enterprise. 
Wealth — robbery— war : these three words contain 
the ineluctable fate of a purely industrial civilisation in 
the midst of which there is a "powerful nation ruled, as 
Germany is now ruled, by robbers. 
Two modes of escape; and, so far as I can see, two only, 
present themselves. One involves a change so vast that 
1 cannot discuss it here ; for it is nothing less than the 
abandonment of the material basis, the wealth basis, 
on which civilisation now rests. The other is the des- 
truction of robber governments all the world over, 
and the destruction of those elements in all go\ern- 
ments which foster the spirit of robbery. This means that 
some of the great nations would have to make a clean 
sweep of their present rulers and that all nations would 
have to expel some of the elements by which they are 
ruled. Until one or both of these changes arc made we 
shall be held fast-bound in the accursed net wi)vcn out of 
the three things whose names stand at the head of this 
article, and the peace of the world will not be worth a 
year's purchase. 
But no ! A year's purchase I would give for it ; per- 
haps ten years ! Lovers of peace may console them- 
selves with the prospect that for some time after the 
war the nations engaged in it will be so impoverished as to 
be hardly worth robbing. There is some security in that, 
but the security will be offset by the position of the 
neutrals, the United States especially. The conclusion 
of the war will leave the United States in the unenviable 
(position of being the best worth robbing of all the countries 
of the earth. She will be enormously rich and the belliger- 
( nt States, all of which will be armed to the teeth, while 
slie is relatively unarmed, will be poor. That is a danger- 
ous position for any nation to occupy in the midst of a 
( ixilisation based on material riches — with the fatal words 
"wealth — robbery — war" inscribed over its portals. 
Well may America begin to look to her bolts and bars, 
as we now hear she is beginning. She might indeed do 
something much better than that, and without firing a 
shot. But so far she shows no sign of doing it. 
Wiuii this dark and dreadful age of state-worship 
(a wholly different thing, thank Gocl, from love of one's 
( ountry) has pas.sed away, some bold spirit will write 
a history of the appalling crimes which States have com- 
mitted against the. incUvidual men and women composing 
tliem. Herbert Spencer made a beginning. His book 
eontains some weak arguments, but for a lieginning it 
was hoi:)cful enough and will arise one day from the 
obscurity into which it has fallen. The title especially, 
■• The >iaii versus The State," with all the emphasis on 
The Wheels of War 
THIRTY' years or so ago there was a book that 
was all the rage called Helen's Babies. Two 
small children were perpetually asking their 
uncle to open his watch so that they might see 
ilie wheels go round. Lord Xorthcliffe must have read 
this book when a boy and decided that Helen's babies 
had the universal mind, for his life has been principally 
occupied in showing ])eople iiow " the wheels go round " 
in every phase of human activity. Li .it the War 
(Hodder and Stoughton, 5s.), he calls himself more than 
once an " inquisitive critic." His incpiisitiveness has 
resulted in giving his readers a wonderfully complete 
picture of the mechanism of war. No civilian has 
received greater facilities to study the monstrous battle- 
machine in full action. He has witnessed lighting on 
the Yser and the Somme, at Verdun and on the Isonzo. 
.\fter two years warfare seems, so to speak, to have 
become standardised, though one may detect differences 
in non-essentials. 
" War has settled down to a rcgulai business, it pro- 
ceeds at the bases with the clockwork regularity of a 
great business." And it is a business in which the Briton 
has shown once again lijs exceptional powers of organisa- 
tion as well as his genius for discipline — the latter the 
more remarkable in tliat it is accompanied with so strong 
a sense of individualism. I^eojjle at Ikjiuc are at last 
learning what is a commonplace to all who have worked 
in the outer parts of Empire that, give good reason 
and a definite object, and no disciphne is too high or 
severe for the British character. " This is a war of 
machinery," writes Lord Northcliffe, " as well as of 
bravery, and among Germany's many blunders was her 
forgetfulness of the British power of quick improvisation 
and organisation in unexpected circumstances, v.hich 
is the secret of our success in building up the Empire in 
strange lands" — one of the secrets. 
Three lightning sketches are given in this volume of 
Sir Douglas Haig, General Joffrc and General Cadorna. 
Haig comes of Fife stock. " It is the imperturbability of the 
Fifcr that makes him so difficult to beat in golf, in affairs 
and in war. . . . While I was with the little family 
party at Headquarters there came news that was good 
and some that was not so good. Neither affected the 
Commander-in-Chief's attitude towards the war nor the 
day's work in the least degree whatever." " Joffrc 
has emerged as one of the great personalities of the 
\\ar. . . As that great grey head rose from the 
writing-table the impression of the man upon me was 
of massivencss." Cadorna " is a general who believes 
in seeing for himself. . . A short lithe quick- 
moving man of sixty-six. . . the most humorous 
of all tire generals in the Great War." 
The book we are told has been brought out at the 
request of the British Red Cross Society and Order of 
St. John (why cannot the two be amalgamated under 
one simple title ?), and all profits will go to the Joint 
Committee. It therefore follows that several chapters, 
by no means the least interesting, are devoted to the 
splendid work of the two Societies. The detailed descrip- 
tion of certain Red Cross hospitals is fascinating reading, 
and one lays down the book wondering whether more 
.science, intelligence and ingenuity have gone to the 
slaughter of men than to the healing vf them when 
rescued from the hell of battle. " John Bull has indeetl 
taken good care of those who IiaN e suffered in his cause. 
Let us liope and see to it that he will be as thoughtful for 
the disabled and their dejjcndents in the future." 
versus, indicates the profoundest fact of modern politics — ■ 
and of ancient politics t'o. We are in the habit of talk- 
ing as though it were aUv.iys for noble ends that the State 
compels the sacrifice of individuals. Sometimes it is so. 
but nine times out of ten it is not so. For ages past, 
and now more than ever, States have been sacrificing 
uncounted millions of individual human lives, and in- 
calculable human values, to a god named Mammon, 
and they have done this in peace no less than in war. The 
one " cause " which has led to the pouring out of niore 
1)lood, the shedding of more tears, the breaking of 
more hearts than any other " cause " under the sun is 
robberj' — robbery organised by States. 
