The Idea of a League of Nations |
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Page 9
... combatant who does not put in all his possible energy is lost . In four brief years , therefore , Europe was compelled to develop a warfare monstrously out of proportion to any conceivable good which the completest victory could ...
... combatant who does not put in all his possible energy is lost . In four brief years , therefore , Europe was compelled to develop a warfare monstrously out of proportion to any conceivable good which the completest victory could ...
Page 12
... combatant spirit in a large modern state , even during actual hostilities ; and in the case of Russia we have a striking example of the distaste a whole population may develop for the war - strain , even during the war and with the ...
... combatant spirit in a large modern state , even during actual hostilities ; and in the case of Russia we have a striking example of the distaste a whole population may develop for the war - strain , even during the war and with the ...
Page 19
... combatants and non - combatants ; but still , in the normal state , every able - bodied citizen was a soldier . The citizen took his place as a matter of course in the militia of his country , leaving to old men and women , or to slaves ...
... combatants and non - combatants ; but still , in the normal state , every able - bodied citizen was a soldier . The citizen took his place as a matter of course in the militia of his country , leaving to old men and women , or to slaves ...
Page 22
... combatants that at the close of the day , when night put a stop to the fight , of the whole six hundred only three men remained alive , two Argives , Alcanor and Chromius , and a single Spartan , Othryadas . The two Argives , regarding ...
... combatants that at the close of the day , when night put a stop to the fight , of the whole six hundred only three men remained alive , two Argives , Alcanor and Chromius , and a single Spartan , Othryadas . The two Argives , regarding ...
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accept aeroplane Argives armament armies battle belligerent biological Bolshevik cavalry Christendom civilization Clausewitz combatant competition conceivable conception conflict coöperation council criticism defeat dream Europe European example fact fight force Foreign Office frontier German German Empire Germany greater hitherto hostility human affairs human nature impossible inclosures individual inevitable instances intense invention ization King of France Lacedæmonians League of Nations league-of-nations project limitation lives logical loyalty Machiavellian mankind ment mental mercenaries military millions mind Modern warfare moral munitions mutual nation in arms never objection organized world-peace overgrowth peace phase political possible power idea preparation prepossession probability realize reason release rentier Roman Empire rules Russia scale scientific social sort Spartan species story substantial truth suffering survive tank theory thing thought thousand three hundred Thyrea tions tribes unification vast victory village marksmen war-process wars whole word World-League of Nations world-league project world-unanimity
Popular passages
Page 22 - THE IDEA OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. II' MANY people have said to themselves, like Jeannette in the touching old ballad, — If I were King of France, or, still better. Pope of Rome. I'd have no fighting men abroad, no weeping maids at home; All the world should be at peace, or, if kings must show their might, Then let those who make the quarrels be the only men to fight. But even Jeannette evidently realized that the idea of making the fate of a tribe or a nation depend upon the fortunes of one or two...
Page 44 - It is clear that, if a world-league is to be living and enduring, the idea of it and the need and righteousness of its service must be taught by every educational system in the world. It must either be served by, or be in conflict with, every religious organization; it must come into the life of everyone, not to release men and women from loyalty, but to demand it for itself. The answer to this criticism that the world-peace will release men from service, is, therefore, that the world-peace is itself...
Page 25 - If we look into the matter closely enough, we shall find that all Geneva Conventions and such palliative ordinances, though excellent in intention and good in their immediate effects, make ultimately for the persistence of war as an institution. They are sops to humanity, devices for rendering war barely tolerable to civilized mankind, and so staving off the inevitable rebellion against its abominations.
Page 9 - ... wars without exhaustion. To take a primitive example, it was possible for the Zulu people, under King Chaka, to carry warfare as it was then understood in South Africa — a business of spearmen fighting on foot — to its utmost perfection, and to remain prosperous and happy themselves, whatever might be the fate they inflicted upon their neighbors. And even the armies of Continental Europe, as they existed before the Great War, were manifestly bearable burdens, because they were borne. But...
Page 21 - If I were King of France, Or, still better, Pope of Rome, I 'd have no fighting men abroad, No weeping maids at home." But. squire, are you really for peace at any price ? I remember what you once wrote in approval of the extermination of the Canaanites by the children of Israel, and of the soldier's duty, taught not only at the Pass of Thermopylae, but in...
Page 5 - ... entirely antagonistic to the continuance of national separations. It is necessary to state very plainly the nature of these new forces. Upon them rests the whole case for the League of Nations as it is here presented. It is a new case. It is argued here that these forces give us powers novel in history and bring mankind face to face with dangers such as it has never confronted before. It is maintained that, on the one hand, they render possible such a reasoned coordination of human affairs as...
Page 25 - ... redeeming features' of war. But the necessities of war completely override all such weaknesses as soon as they begin to endanger actual military interests. And the logic of war tolerates them only as cheap concessions to a foolish popular psychology. It must be remembered that undisguised atrocities on a stupendous scale — such, for instance, as the massacre in cold blood of whole regiments of helpless prisoners — would be too strong for the stomach of even the most brutalized people, and...
Page 38 - ... an eternal peace the League of Nations would be forced to stand ready for an eternal war." But the final barrier to the scheme was the impossibility of admitting Germany to the company of its former enemies. "Even if revolution followed defeat," Whibley argued in 1918, "and a wave of Bolshevikism broke suddenly over Germany, even if a provisional government were minded to come into a League of Nations, its accession would be but momentary. The old German spirit would revive: a Scharnhorst would...
Page 18 - If, from humanitarian principles, a nation decided not to resort to extremities, but to employ its strength up to a given point only, it would soon find itself swept onward against its will. No enemy would consider itself bound to observe a similar limitation. So far from this being the case, each would avail itself of the voluntary moderation of the other to outstrip him at once in activity.
Page 6 - All political and social institutions, all matters of human relationship, are dependent upon the means by which mind may react upon mind and life upon life — that is to say, upon the intensity, rapidity, and reach of mental and physical communication.