The Extinction in Perpetuity of Armaments and War (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. All communities are daily endeavouring to advance their interests, or what they deem their interests. Which is the best way to do so? One excellent way is to develop the natural resources of the land. But we find various lands full of natural wealth awaiting exploitation, and yet practically nothing is done. As a rule the reason for that is: no security. What are a country's interests? With natural resources I have nothing to do, because they are beyond human control. If a land contains coal it does, and if it does not it does not, and there is an end of it. It is, therefore, useless to discuss the natural wealth or climate of a country. Apart from that, then, which is the greatest treasure a country can possess? It is unity of language and spread of language. The way to advance the interests of a country is to advance the language of that country; to diminish a country diminish its language. For instance, attention is often called to the great increase of prosperity, the great development that has taken place in England within, say, the last seventy-five years. Why has England made such vast strides in that three-quarters of a century? Some attribute it to the fiscal policy of Free Trade inaugurated in 1846, others to steam and electricity and their concomitants. As an index they point to the vast increase of population that has occurred. I do not know the exact increase, but let us say the population has about doubled since, say, 1820, before the beginning of the railway era. The parent stock then would number, say, 20,000,000, the present-day population 40,000,000; this gives a growth of 20,000,000. That increase undoubtedly indicates an augmentation of strength and power, but only for one reason, namely, that the growth speaks the same to...