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the consciousness of most people who champion militarism. Thus, forinstance, in 1940, when the drive for conscription in peacetime wasrunning into some obstacles, the New York Post, which, like allmilitaristic champions, was for the measure only for the noblestreasons, perceived that a large number of our dumb proletariansresisted the infection. It felt that they should be given a shot ofthe more sordid ingredients of the militaristic dialectic. It thereforeurged that the yokels should be given a dose of the economicargument and that the debate in Congress should be "concentratedon the entire program of $ 00,000 youths to be trained, with pay, bythe National Youth Administration, of the score of new airports tobe built by the Work Projects Administration, of the rise of thenumber of jobs which will follow the letting of ten billions ofdefense contracts."Mr. Edward Hallett Carr, of the London Times, puts his finger onthe central idea in this subject. He sees with clarity that war hasperformed and still performs a social purpose, even though it be nota moral one. The wars of the last century were gilded with anoblique moral purpose even though they were raw aggressions becausenations suffering from scarcity made it a high moral purposeto possess themselves of Asiatic and African territories to providetheir people with the necessities of life. There is not too solid afoundation to this pretense, but it was made nevertheless. Now,however, we are told that scarcity is a thing of the past, at leastamong the great favored nations. But war now finds its social purposein the struggle against unemployment and inequality. "Againstthese evils, which democracy and laissez-faire capitalism cannotcure," says Mr. Carr, "large-scale war provides an effective if shortantidote." 1This is the central idea, but it is a mistake to suppose that it iswar itself which is the chief weapon used against unemploymentand unequal distribution of wealth. War does wipe out unemploymentand does create and distribute widely new money income. Bucfar more important than war is the preparation for war. Indeed waritself is often a by-product of this preparation and of the circumstanceswhich lead to preparation. Preparation for war is far moreConditions of Peace, by Edward H. Carr, Macmillan, New York, 1942.2O8