year to the bondholders. The disproportion is appalling. The country is being taxed in order to pay interest to what may be regarded as a privileged class; and yet the term 'privileged class' is unjustified, for the rentiers are really badly treated, in that their income is a fixed income which, owing to the fall of the franc, has diminished in real value to an extent which would hardly have appeared possible a few years ago. In one way or another the war must be paid for, and the question is whether it should be paid for by gradually increased taxation year after year and by placing the State bondholders at a disadvantage as compared with the industrial bondholders, or whether the State should immediately proceed to take whatever is required from its citizens, rich and poor, thus preserving its currency and obviating the necessity of heavy annual taxation.

I do not desire, however, to discuss in detail this vexed problem, but it is surely fair to suggest that if a community goes to war the community should understand in advance that it will be called upon to make monetary sacrifices as well as sacrifices in human life. It will not understand unless there is given in advance power to the State, not only to raise taxes, but to obtain all the capital it may need for the prosecution of the war and the final liquidation of the war. It has been protested by prominent bankers that funds to prosecute a war and to liquidate a war should be obtained in a manner that will disturb the business life of a nation as little as possible, and that will not deplete or destroy the income of the people more than is absolutely necessary to meet the exigences of war. With that everybody must agree. But directly or indirectly the income of the people will be depleted. There is no more misleading cry than the foolish cry raised in England that business

should continue as usual during hostilities. Business cannot continue as usual, and the question is as between two methods: one method tends to deceive the people and the other method tends to open their eyes to the fact that ultimately they must pay, and that no enemy country will pay for them.

The European peoples were deceived as perhaps peoples have never been deceived in the history of the world. They were assured that Germany would pay for the war if the Allies would only continue it long enough to defeat Germany. It is because, in pursuance of this fallacy, we have endeavored to make Germany pay, that the whole of the Continent has suffered more than it need have suffered for six years, and that financial and economic confusion still prevails. It has been declared that capital, which is a shy bird, would if menaced fly to cover; but in any community which is really animated by patriotic sentiments such an attitude on the part of capitalists is unthinkable. They must show the same loyalty as the common man.

VI

It would be facile to drift into a demonstration that stricter governmental control of men, of material, and of money, in time of war, would make for the efficient prosecution of war. This is, however, a side issue. The purpose of the proposal is not to make it easier to prosecute a war but to prevent war. This must be borne constantly in mind. It is possible that, in other ages, men have delighted in fighting. In our own times it would seem that man is by nature a fighting animal, for the armies of Napoleon which had no purpose but conquest followed him wherever he went, prepared to endure any hardship, happy enough that they should show their

physical superiority over the men of other nations. Even in the last great war there is no doubt that millions of men were moved chiefly by the sense that at last an opportunity had occurred for them to escape from the dull daily round of existence.

It is deduced from the evidence that mankind will always love war, and that nothing will bring peace upon the earth. But in no age as in our age, in spite of appearances, has there been such consciousness of the evils of war, and in no age has there been such consciousness of the solidarity of mankind. Undoubtedly progress is being made and, beyond a peradventure, peace can be achieved. The earth has become a small place. Every country finds its interests interlocked with those of every other country. The traveling facilities of to-day make for a better understanding. The rapidity of communication helps toward the realization of a common civilization. Commerce in its modern development makes us more and more interdependent. Our culture is more or less the same the world over, and when one nation suffers every nation suffers. No longer can we live in water-tight compartments; no longer is war a little thing that can be regarded as apart from our general life. Chaos in one place means chaos in every place. We have been drawn together as never before, and we are becoming aware of the necessity of adopting friendly relations toward each other, and of helping each other. We cannot pass by on the other side; we cannot be simply onlookers. The rôle of the good Samaritan is no longer a rôle which we are at liberty to fulfill or not to fulfill. So intimately bound up are we with each other that to fight to-day is precisely as though the members of our body were to quarrel among themselves and were to attempt to injure each other.

In striking at our head our arm would be committing suicide. The destructiveness of modern warfare has brought home to us the horrors of fighting, which can no more be localized. We recognize that no future war could be confined to the men in the field. It would, if pursued to its logical end, bring about the destruction of all that is precious to us.

And morally also there has been a considerable advance. The mental attitude of nations is becoming more and more the mental attitude of individuals who have been taught in their private relations the advantages of selfrestraint and of mutual forbearance. In an earlier age the average man was accustomed to personal violence, but to-day the average man has little or no experience of violence; he does not think in terms of violence. The fighting instinct has in communal life disappeared, or at least rarely manifests itself in civilized communities. Now it is obvious that the order which has been introduced into private life must, consciously or unconsciously, extend itself until it becomes the rule of national life. The fighting instinct is, owing to the personal habits of men everywhere, being eliminated, and it would be strange indeed if men who have set up courts of law for the legal settlement of their personal disputes were not to adopt the same principle in international affairs.

VII

But with the growth of this detestation of violence in every sphere, with the attempt to set up International Courts of Justice and Leagues of Nations, and to have recourse to the arbitration of special tribunals, there exists a greater desire for profits than has ever existed before in the history of the world. The business instinct has, as it

were, taken the place of the fighting instinct, and the business instinct, if we are not careful, will prove to be as dangerous as the fighting instinct. In any long view, there are more profits to be made out of peace than out of war, and business men are undoubtedly aware of this fact. But there is nevertheless an immediate temptation; and it is precisely to destroy the possibilities of profits in war time that the promulgators of the present plan urge its universal acceptance.

The higher consciousness of our common interests needs to be fortified, and it is essential that the Governments should eradicate the selfishness that was shown by profiteers, little and big, of all classes, in all nations, and that war should be shorn of the only glamour that it still possesses that of providing profits for a portion of the community.

No country which agrees to mobilize all its resources in time of war, to abolish the middleman, the profiteer, the civilian who can in present circumstances continue to work for private gain, can possibly lose. It would discourage war; but if war, in some fit of madness, or through the bad faith or the atavism of some other country which has not adopted a similar plan, were to be forced upon it, then it would not suffer, but on the contrary would, by this mobilization of the whole of its resources, be in a superior position, and would beat its enemies much more certainly than if every man were striving for his own hand and private interests were to be mixed with national interests.

The origin of the suggestion is doubtless to be traced far back, but it would be unfair not to give full credit to the Christian Science Monitor, which for

mulated and advocated the proposition for the maintenance of peace by eliminating profit and privilege from war. Since it set out its plan - which is admittedly a partial though an exceedingly important plan — the idea has been caught up everywhere. All organizations of World War veterans emphatically favor it. Measures have been specifically introduced in Congress, and the Conventions, both Democratic and Republican, have pronounced in its favor. In European countries its progress may be slower, but serious thinkers in all lands have been attracted by the proposition, and are doing their best to propagate it and to make it practical politics. But if America takes the lead, as she has often taken the lead in matters of this kind intended to promote the advancement of humanity, -as indeed she took the lead in the founding of the League of Nations and of the International Court of Justice, it must not be supposed that America is putting herself at a disadvantage as compared with other countries which, in this respect, for particular reasons, are more backward. The idealism of America is an idealism which is solidly planted on the ground. It is an idealism which, far from weakening any country which possesses it, will give it a formidable strength of organization which will make the most bellicose enemy hesitate before attacking.

In short, the advantage of this scheme, which is simple, practical, and effective, is that while it is designed to prevent war, it does not reduce, but, on the contrary, increases, the means of self-defense. Sooner or later this plan will be advocated by every international assembly and in every national parliament.

For many years I observed with intense envy the Englishman traveling in America. From Dickens to Arnold Bennett he brought with him a brilliant and fascinating sport which he practised with the utmost enjoyment -the sport of observing Americans and talking about them. We listened with dazed wonder, and did nothing. We liked America too well to go to England and turn the tables on him; and it never occurred to us that we could get the same sort of fun by watching each other.

But one day a liberating thought struck me. If an Englishman could get an exquisitely painful delight from writing twenty pages about an American sleeping-car, why could n't a Georgian, covered with cotton dust, see something to amaze him in a Vermont sugar-house? Or a Vermonter, who had spent half his life throwing chunk-wood into the cellar, have his mind broadened by discovering that in Georgia there are no cellars?

I basked in this thought; and my happiness was intensified by the realization that I was better qualified to write this treatise on ‘America as Seen by an American' than any other living person. I remembered how nonpartisan I was; for I was born in the only State which had seceded from both the Union and the Confederacy West Virginia. As a part of old Virginia it had left the Union, and then had insisted on seceding back again to show that there was n't any such thing as secession. Great numbers of

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people had the jarring experience of going to bed in the South and waking up in the North.

Then I thought by what a mellow process my ancestors had migrated. Coming over from England on the good ship Arabella, a few years after the advent of the Mayflower, they had comfortably settled themselves in western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, where they lived for several generations and became numerous. There were hardly any of the New England traditions that they did n't pick up on the way. Then in 1816, made restless by a series of very cold winters, they loaded their traditions and other household utensils into ox wagons, and set out for West Virginia, which had just been discovered by Daniel Boone. After killing off all the Indians and wolves, they waited for seventy-five years or so until I was born. Then they decided to leave.

This time my parents went to Georgia, where their New England traditions were still in such good repair that we were known as 'Yankees'; and my father preached in one of the few Congregational churches which enlighten those vast waste-lands south of the Mason and Dixon line. Although I am known as a Yankee in the South, I have never been able to get any Vermonter to admit my condition. So I am a man with two countries

or with none; and each time I return to Vermont or Georgia I have strangely mixed feelings of coming home and of visiting some beautiful foreign port.

27

Several years ago I was living in a pleasant little city ten miles from Atlanta. I had spent the previous year in Vermont, and all my impressions were heightened by the contrast. The morning sunshine was deliciously bright, and the air was too soft for early spring. Dogwood and azalea gleamed from the hillsides, and seedling peach-trees, with their riotous pink bloom, almost impeded the sidewalk that led to the public square a mile away. Rambling houses, with large yards full of irresponsible but pleasing shrubbery, bordered one side of the street; untouched woodland, all too soon to be cut up into city lots, lined the other side.

I was n't going anywhere, but I suddenly caught sight of an interesting figure in front of me, who evidently was. He was an old man of seventyfive, and to my surprise he wore the gray uniform and hat of the men who fought under Lee. The easy surety of his unhastened step and the erect height of his figure caught my attention. His beard was white, but his cheeks were fresh-colored; he had a fine forehead and a handsome nose. As I overtook him he turned toward me with courteous dignity.

'I have often seen you pass, sir, and have meant to ask you to come in. If you're a stranger, I want you to feel at home. My name is Colonel Hayes, and I live up there on the hill.’

I thanked him, gave him my name, and then asked: "What is the band playing for, up on the square? Is some sort of celebration going on?'

'Why, yes; this is the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Dekalb County. You will see an historical pageant of all that ever happened here. We have been getting ready for it for weeks. I am to march at the head of the Confederate veterans,' he added proudly, laying his hand on his sword.

As we approached the square, the burst of music grew louder. The lawns and porches were covered with spectators, and the actors in the pageant scurried for their places. It was easy to see that neither past, present, nor future was to be neglected. The very products of the town were personified. Pretty girls disguised as milk bottles or spring chickens chatted and flirted with blocks of Stone Mountain granite.

Ferdinando de Soto was huddling his savages into their places. 'Why in heck don't you Indians act like Indians? Quit bumping into Oglethorpe's settlers!'

"Aw, shut up, Jim! You don't know yerself whether we happened before Oglethorpe or after him.'

'We happened before him, you poor fish! Oglethorpe won't be born till I've been at the bottom of the Mississippi a hundred years. Look out for Eli Whitney's cotton gin! Let it get up there in front of the Civil War!'

After a great deal of chatter and confusion and prancing of horses, the different parts of the pageant were properly arranged, and the whole started forward to the sound of music and the waving of banners. The care which had been spent in the preparation of the floats was amazing. Here came a farm wagon, pulled by oxen, and filled with men and women who represented old-time country people. The women wore sunbonnets, and the men cracked long blacksnake whips. Lanterns, bundles of fodder, and homemade baskets were carelessly tied on the back, while half a dozen gaunt yellow hounds trailed behind. Of even greater interest was a miniature logcabin on wheels, with an aged Negro uncle sitting in the doorway. He was no make-believe uncle, but a real one, who had n't been allowed to change his clothes or anything. In front of the door was fixed a persimmon tree,