GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

730 ETHICS AND POLITICS*. THE MODERNS
to create a double standard of morality. There is one system
of morals for the individual and another for the State,
so that men who, in private life, are humane, honest and
trustworthy, believe that, when they have dealings on the
State's behalf with the representatives of other States,
they are justified in behaving in ways of which, as private
individuals, they would be heartily ashamed.
EXISTENCE AND GROWTH OF PEACEFUL
RELATIONS BETWEEN STATES. In fact, however,
the hostile relation between States is very far from being
the only relation. Not only is there common action by
many States for the control of disease, of prostitution,
and of conditions of labour, and for the establishment of
postal, telegraphic, railway and air communications;
there are also quarantine regulations, standardizations
of weights and measures, and informal arrangements for
the repatriation of aliens. There are even inter-State
agreements which presuppose the mutual recognition of
moral considerations, such as regulations for the control
of the white slave traffic, of drugs and of disease, and the
adjudicative provisions for the award of the Nobel Prize.
As a rule such inter-State relations find expression in
actual modifications of State structure only at a considerable
period after they have attained concrete form.
Although, however, the outward structure of the State may
remain unaffected by this de facto transgression of its
territorial boundaries, it would be nonsense to contend that
the nature of the modern State has not been profoundly
modified by the growing intercourse between its own
citizens and those of other States. Hence, any political
theory which seeks to give an account of the nature of the
State must find a place for these modifications, and so
define the State as to embrace them in the account.
This the idealist theory, regarding the State as an isolated
entity, fails to do*
Finally, the presuppositions of the League of Nations
entail the recognition of the principle that the State is