p. 246 | MORE SWORDS THAN PLOWSHARES

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, April 21, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 16

MORE SWORDS THAN PLOWSHARES.

The first quarter of the year 1885 has been occupied with events which do not encourage the belief that civilization is outgrowing the military spirit. The stir of military preparation, or the outbreak of actual conflict, is to be heard to-day over the area of the inhabited earth. England, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, India, Australia, South Africa, Arabia, China, Madagascar, Central America, Canada, and even to a slight extent the United States, feel the influence of the violent combative tendency. And if the extent to which the warlike spirit is manifested seems to contradict the theories of cloud philosophers with regard to the pacific effect of modern civilization, an inquiry into the causes of these wars and rumors of wars may well provoke a doubt as to the ethical advance of the age. For in most instances weak powers are being preyed upon by stronger ones, and with as cynical a disregard for justice and right as ever was shown by our piratical ancestors; they issued forth to harry and slay. England in the Soudan, France in Madagascar, and Russia in Afghanistan, are each proceeding on the principle that “might makes right;” while two-thirds of the military preparation going on in these countries is caused indirectly by aggressions and invasions.

An abnormally large proportion of the capital is being thus invested in destructive agencies, and while certain trades and lines of business will undoubtedly profit by the movement, its general tendency must be to hamper progress. It may indeed be possible that the world is on the eve of one of those periods of war which may be ordained for the purpose, among others, of settling certain social and economic problems which mankind cannot solve themselves. But if it is necessary that such rough methods of adjustment of balance be applied at intervals, what is to be said for the mollifying effects of civilization? It is found that in countries where the increase of population presses upon the means of subsistence, in China and India, when left to the normal influences, native wars keep down the population; when peaceful conditions are established, the rate rises so that in a few years the pressure becomes intolerable, and then famines occur and depopulate whole provinces.

At present the world's chief drawback is rather to excess of capital than of population. But war destroys capital quickly, and in these days more completely than ever; so that balance may perhaps be re-adjusted to some extent in this way. The persistence of old principles of State views, and old policies of iniquity, deserves to be studied more carefully than has been heretofore. Can the individuals constituting a State advance in ethical development, while a State itself, which is supposed to be the expression of their aggregated tendencies, yet retains pagan ways and views? That would seem to be the fact, however it be explained, and certainly is a curious fact. The recent mania for expansion which has seized so many European powers has already led to acts of high-handed usurpation and deliberate injustice such as history affords few stronger examples of, and the tendencies are increasing instead of declining. In fact, there seems to be more prospect of world-war than of a great world-peace, if conditions count for any thing; and in the rapacity that underlies all this aggressive movement there is little hint of any gain for those higher elements which we are so apt to vaunt when speaking of nineteenth century civilization.—N. Y.