AN INQUIRY INTO

THE NATURE OF PEACE

AND

THE TERMS OF ITS PERPETUATION

BY

THORSTEIN VEBLEN

New York
B.W. HUEBSCH
1919

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1917.
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Published April, 1917:
Reprinted August, 1917.

New edition published by
B.W. HUEBSCH.
January, 1919.

PREFACE

It is now some 122 years since Kant wrote the essay, Zum ewigen Frieden. Many things have happened since then, although the Peace to which he looked forward with a doubtful hope has not been among them. But many things have happened which the great critical philosopher, and no less critical spectator of human events, would have seen with interest. To Kant the quest of an enduring peace presented itself as an intrinsic human duty, rather than as a promising enterprise. Yet through all his analysis of its premises and of the terms on which it may be realised there runs a tenacious persuasion that, in the end, the régime of peace at large will be installed. Not as a deliberate achievement of human wisdom, so much as a work of Nature the Designer of things—Natura daedala rerum.

To any attentive reader of Kant's memorable essay it will be apparent that the title of the following inquiry—On the nature of peace and the terms of its perpetuation—is a descriptive translation of the caption under which he wrote. That such should be the case will not, it is hoped, be accounted either an unseemly presumption or an undue inclination to work under a borrowed light. The aim and compass of any disinterested inquiry in these premises is still the same as it was in Kant's time; such, indeed, as he in great part made it,—viz., a systematic knowledge of things as they are. Nor is the light of Kant's leading to be dispensed with as touches the ways and means of systematic knowledge, wherever the human realities are in question.

Meantime, many things have also changed since the date of Kant's essay. Among other changes are those that affect the direction of inquiry and the terms of systematic formulation. Natura daedala rerum is no longer allowed to go on her own recognizances, without divulging the ways and means of her workmanship. And it is such a line of extension that is here attempted, into a field of inquiry which in Kant's time still lay over the horizon of the future.

The quest of perpetual peace at large is no less a paramount and intrinsic human duty today than it was, nor is it at all certain that its final accomplishment is nearer. But the question of its pursuit and of the conditions to be met in seeking this goal lies in a different shape today; and it is this question that concerns the inquiry which is here undertaken,—What are the terms on which peace at large may hopefully be installed and maintained? What, if anything, is there in the present situation that visibly makes for a realisation of these necessary terms within the calculable future? And what are the consequences presumably due to follow in the nearer future from the installation of such a peace at large? And the answer to these questions is here sought not in terms of what ought dutifully to be done toward the desired consummation, but rather in terms of those known factors of human behaviour that can be shown by analysis of experience to control the conduct of nations in conjunctures of this kind.

February 1917

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Introductory: On the State and Its Relation To War
and Peace

The inquiry is not concerned with the intrinsic merits
of peace or war, 2.

—But with the nature, causes and consequences of the
preconceptions favoring peace or war, 3.

—A breach of the peace is an act of the government,
or State, 3.

—Patriotism is indispensable to furtherance of warlike
enterprise, 4.

—All the peoples of Christendom are sufficiently patriotic, 6.

—Peace established by the State, an armistice—the State
is an instrumentality for making peace, not for perpetuating it, 7.

—The governmental establishments and their powers in all
the Christian nations are derived from the feudal establishments
of the Middle Ages, 9.

—Still retain the right of coercively controlling the actions
of their citizens, 11.

—Contrast of Icelandic Commonwealth, 12.

—The statecraft of the past half century has been
one of competitive preparedness, 14.

—Prussianised Germany has forced the pace in this
competitive preparedness, 20.

—An avowedly predatory enterprise no longer meets
with approval, 21.

—When a warlike enterprise has been entered upon, it
will have the support of popular sentiment even if it
is an aggressive war, 22.

—The moral indignation of both parties to the quarrel
is to be taken for granted, 23.

—The spiritual forces of any Christian nation may be
mobilised for war by either of two pleas: (1) The
preservation or furtherance of the community's material
interests, real or fancied, and (2) vindication of the
National Honour; as perhaps also perpetuation of the
national "Culture," 23.

CHAPTER II

On The Nature and Uses Of Patriotism

The nature of Patriotism, 31.

—Is a spirit of Emulation, 33.

—Must seem moral, if only to a biased populace, 33.

—The common man is sufficiently patriotic but is hampered
with a sense of right and honest dealing, 38.

—Patriotism is at cross purposes with modern life, 38.

—Is an hereditary trait? 41.

—Variety of racial stocks in Europe, 43.

—Patriotism a ubiquitous trait, 43.

—Patriotism disserviceable, yet men hold to it, 46.

—Cultural evolution of Europeans, 48.

—Growth of a sense of group solidarity, 49.

—Material interests of group falling into abeyance
as class divisions have grown up, until prestige
remains virtually the sole community interest, 51.

—Based upon warlike prowess, physical magnitude and
pecuniary traffic of country, 54.

—Interests of the master class are at cross purposes
with the fortunes of the common man, 57.

—Value of superiors is a "prestige value," 57.

—The material benefits which this ruling class contribute
are: defense against aggression, and promotion of the
community's material gain, 60.

—The common defense is a remedy for evils due to the
patriotic spirit, 61.

—The common defense the usual blind behind which events
are put in train for eventual hostilities, 62.

—All the nations of warring Europe convinced that they
are fighting a defensive war, 62.

—Which usually takes the form of a defense of the National
Honour, 63.

—Material welfare is of interest to the Dynastic statesman
only as it conduces to political success, 64.

—The policy of national economic self-sufficiency, 67.

—The chief material use of patriotism is its use to a
limited number of persons in their quest of private gain, 67.

—And has the effect of dividing the nations on lines of
rivalry, 76.

CHAPTER III

On The Conditions of a Lasting Peace

The patriotic spirit of modern peoples is the abiding
source of contention among nations, 77.

—Hence any calculus of the Chances of Peace will be
a reckoning of forces which may be counted on to keep
a patriotic nation in an unstable equilibrium of peace, 78.

—The question of peace and war at large is a question of
peace and war among the Powers, which are of two contrasted
kinds: those which may safely be counted on spontaneously
to take the offensive and those which will fight on provocation, 79.

—War not a question of equity but of opportunity, 81.

—The Imperial designs of Germany and Japan as the prospective
cause of war, 82.

—Peace can be maintained in two ways: submission to
their dominion, or elimination of these two Powers;
No middle course open, 84.

—Frame of mind of states; men and popular sentiment in
a Dynastic State, 84.

—Information, persuasion and reflection will not subdue
national animosities and jealousies; Peoples of Europe
are racially homogeneous along lines of climatic latitude, 88.

—But loyalty is a matter of habituation, 89.

—Derivation and current state of German nationalism, 94.

—Contrasted with the animus of the citizens of a commonwealth, 103

—A neutral peace-compact may be practicable in the absence of Germany and Japan,
but it has no chance in their presence, 106.

—The national life of Germany: the Intellectuals, 108.

—Summary of chapter, 116.

CHAPTER IV

Peace Without Honour

Submission to the Imperial Power one of the conditions
precedent to a peaceful settlement, 118.

—Character of the projected tutelage, 118.

—Life under the Pax Germanica contrasted with
the Ottoman and Russian rule, 124.

—China and biological and cultural success, 130.

—Difficulty of non-resistant subjection is of a psychological
order, 131.

—Patriotism of the bellicose kind is of the nature of
habit, 134.

—And men may divest themselves of it, 140.

—A decay of the bellicose national spirit must be of
the negative order, the disuse of the discipline out
of which it has arisen, 142.

—Submission to Imperial authorities necessitates
abeyance of national pride among the other peoples, 144.

—Pecuniary merits of the projected Imperial dominion, 145.

—Pecuniary class distinctions in the commonwealths and
the pecuniary burden on the common man, 150.

—Material conditions of life for the common man under
the modern rule of big business, 156.

—The competitive régime, "what the traffic will bear,"
and the life and labor of the common man, 158.

—Industrial sabotage by businessmen, 165.

—Contrasted with the Imperial usufruct and its material
advantages to the common man, 174.

CHAPTER V

Peace and Neutrality

Personal liberty, not creature comforts, the ulterior
springs of action of the common man of the democratic
nations, 178.

—No change of spiritual state to be looked for in the
life-time of the oncoming generation, 185.

—The Dynastic spirit among the peoples of the Empire
will, under the discipline of modern economic conditions,
fall into decay, 187.

—Contrast of class divisions in Germany and England, 192.

—National establishments are dependent for their
continuance upon preparation for hostilities, 196.

—The time required for the people of the Dynastic
States to unlearn their preconceptions will be longer
than the interval required for a new onset, 197.

—There can be no neutral course between peace by
unconditional surrender and submission or peace by
the elimination of Imperial Germany and Japan, 202.

—Peace by submission not practicable for the modern
nations, 203.

—Neutralisation of citizenship, 205.

—Spontaneous move in that direction not to be looked for, 213.

—Its chances of success, 219.

—The course of events in America, 221.

CHAPTER VI

Elimination of the Unfit

A league of neutrals, its outline, 233.

—Need of security from aggression of Imperial Germany, 234.

—Inclusion of the Imperial States in the league, 237.

—Necessity of elimination of Imperial military clique, 239.

—Necessity of intermeddling in internal affairs of Germany even
if not acceptable to the German people, 240.

—Probability of pacific nations taking measures to insure peace, 244-298.

—The British gentleman and his control of the English government, 244.

—The shifting of control out of the hands of the gentleman into
those of the underbred common man, 251.

—The war situation and its probable effect on popular habits
of thought in England, 252.

—The course of such events and their bearing on the chances
of a workable pacific league, 255.

—Conditions precedent to a successful pacific league
of neutrals, 258.

—Colonial possessions, 259.

—Neutralisation of trade relations, 263.

—Futility of economic boycott, 266.

—The terms of settlement, 269.

—The effect of the war and the chances of the British people
being able to meet the exigencies of peace, 273.

—Summary of the terms of settlement, 280.

—Constitutional monarchies and the British gentlemanly
government, 281.

—The American national establishment, a government
by businessmen, and its economic policy, 292.

—America and the league, 294.

CHAPTER VII

Peace and the Price System

The different conceptions of peace, 299.

—Psychological effects of the war, 303.

—The handicraft system and the machine industry,
and their psychological effect on political preconceptions, 306.

—The machine technology and the decay of patriotic loyalty, 310.

—Summary, 313.

—Ownership and the right of contract, 315.

—Standardised under handicraft system, 319.

—Ownership and the machine industry. 320.

—Business control and sabotage, 322.

—Governments of pacific nations controlled by privileged classes, 326.

—Effect of peace on the economic situation, 328.

—Economic aspects of a régime of peace, especially as related
to the development of classes, 330.

—The analogy of the Victorian Peace, 344.

—The case of the American Farmer, 348.

—The leisure class, 350.

—The rising standard of living, 354.

—Culture, 355.

—The eventual cleavage of classes, those who own and those
who do not, 360.

—Conditioned by peace at large, 366.

—Necessary conditions of a lasting peace, 367.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF PEACE AND THE TERMS OF ITS PERPETUATION

ON THE NATURE OF PEACE AND THE TERMS OF ITS PERPETUATION