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96 ON POLITICS, GOVERN:MENT, AND PACIFISM
That is to say, the state should be our servant and not we its
slaves. The state transgresses this commandment when it compels
us by force to engage in military and war service, the
more so since the object and the effect of this slavish service is
to kill people belonging to other countries or interfere with
their freedom of development. We are only to make such sacrifices
to the state as will promote the free development of individual
human beings. To every American all this may be a platitude,
but not to every European. Hence we may hope that the
fight against war will find strong support among Americans.
And now for the Disarmament Conference. Ought one to
laugh, weep, or hope when one thinks of it? Imagine a city
inhabited by fiery·tempered, dishonest, and quarrelsome citizens.
The constant danger to life there is felt as a serious handicap
which makes all healthy development impossible. The
City Council desires to remedy this abominable state of affairs,
although all the counselors and the rest of the citizens insist on
continuing to carry a dagger in their belts. After years of preparation
the City Council determines to compromise and raises
the question, how long and how sharp the dagger is allowed to
be which anyone may carry in his belt when he goes for a walk.
As long as the cunning citizens do not SUppress knifing by legislation,
the courts, and the police, things go on in the old way,
of course. A definition of the length and sharpness of the permitted
dagger will only help the strongest and most turbulent
and leave the weaker at their mercy. You will all understand
the meaning of this parable. It is true that we have a League of
Nations and a Court of Arbitration. But the League is not much
more than a meeting-place and the Court has no means of enforcing
its decisions. These institutions provide no security
for any country in case of an attack upon it. If you bear this in
mind, you will judge the attitude of the French, their refusal
to disarm without security, less harshly than it is usually judged
at present.
Unless we can agree to limit the sovereignty of the individual
state by binding every one of them to take joint action against
any country which openly or secretly resists a judgment of the