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Patriotism and Peace

Author(s): Frank Hamilton HankinsSource: The Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Apr., 1922), pp. 505-523Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29738515 .

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PATRIOTISM AND PEACEBy Frank Hamilton Hankins, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology,Clark University

I. This an Age of NationalismThe successful conclusion of the Washington conference

for a reduction of armaments makes opportune an inquiryinto the deeper psychic causes of war. It is obvious thatreduction of naval preparedness, however valuable it maybe as a primary step does not affect the fundamentalcauses of international hostilities. Two individuals benton doing personal injury one to the other would not berestrained because they had no six-shooters. They mightresort to clubs, knives, stones or even bare fists. Similarly,nations whose armaments are merely reduced in certaindirections, but whose ratios of strength have been unaltered

may not have their psychic states fundamentally altered.This isnot said to decry the immense value of theWashing?ton Conference both in its actual achievements and as aprecedent, but rather to bring out the point that arma?

ments are primarily the result, rather than the cause, ofthose nationalistic hopes, fears, ambitions and conflicts

which lead to warlike attitudes. No nation is ever ade?quately armed for actual war. Every European bellig?erent in the Great War was, when the war began in astate of greatly reduced equipment, as compared with itscondition a year later. Since the armistice numerous warshave been waged on the European continent by nations tooweak to provide high-grade modern military equipment;they were in a state of reduced armament, but the warswent merrily on. The thesis developed in the followingparagraphs is that the immemorial and enduring cause ofwar is the sentiment of group egoism, which in our daytakes the form of nationalistic patriotism.

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506 FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS

It is obvious that ours is the era of nationalism. AsIsrael Zangwill says: "Nationality, deep as life and narrowas the grave, is upon us." Not only are Poles, Bohemians,Slovenes, Serbs, and Bulgars stirring with a rising tide ofnational ambitions; not only is Ireland, smarting underexploitation, also moved by a new consciousness of in?dividuality and strength; but the wandering Jew, after

many centuries of humble self-abnegation, now dreams of anew Jerusalem and the restoration of the glories of Zion;and America grows patriotic and imperialistic and dreams ofspreading her institutions of democracy and capitalism tothe ends of the earth. The world is thus filled as neverbefore since the break up of the Roman Empire with thevoices of contentious nationalities at the very moment thatit has begun seriously to consider the practicability of aLeague of Nations. War is an ancient institution whoseroots antedate savagery and barbarism. But war is im?possible except between groups contending for the rights ofsovereignty; and yet we placed in the forefront of ouraims in the recent war the guaranteeing to numerous newgroups of that most fundamental test of sovereignty, theright of self-determination.The conflict of nationalism with that degree of inter?nationalism which is essential for peace is thus evident.

We have fought to free subject peoples from the unsavoryrule of hereditary potentates and thus to enlarge the op?portunities of each for the expression of its peculiar nationalgenius. And yet unless some restriction of the full rightsof self-determination is effected, our commendable purposeseems destined to fill the world with a new bedlam in thecoming years.

II. What is the Basic Element in Nationalism?1. It is not race

When one comes to inquire into the basis of this national?istic particularism which thus disrupts the world he meetsa puzzling problem. We commonly think of the Poles,the Bohemians, the Slovaks, and the Slovenes, and the



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PATRIOTISM AND PEACE 507

Belgians, the French, the Germans, and the Italians asraces and satisfactorily explain their quarrels as due to racerivalry. But the anthropologists tell us that there are onlythree European races, that one or both of these may be aderivative from the third, and that they have all been in

Europe, lo! these thousands of years. During all thistime they have been fighting and conquering and inter?

marrying until they have all become heterogeneous hy?brids divisible today into a half-dozen or more types. Pro?portions of ingredients may vary, but a few minutes'study of maps of racial distribution must convince any onenot only that all of the most advanced western nations arevery heterogeneous in blood, but that the great rivals,France, England, and Germany are composed of nearlythe same elements; and that any division that can be made

must leave portions of one nationality as a minority groupwithin the geographical area subject to the self-determina?tion of another nationality. We need not then be sur?prised to find Leon Dominian one of the very greatestauthorities, saying, "Northern France is perhaps more

Teutonic than Southern Germany, while eastern Germanyis, in many places, more Slavic than Russia." Zangwillfinds that Russia has nearly a dozen distinct nationalisticgroups. "The fiercest fighting zone of nationality isMace?donia, and here the races so shade into one another that itwas possible for the Bulgarian professors to find only sevenhundred Serbians, where the Serbian statisticians foundover two million and the Greek enumerators no Serbians atall." When Professor Muir finds that "the Rumanianpeople include a sediment of nearly every race that haspassed from Asia into Europe," he does not disprove theirLatinity, but rather demonstrates it. For the Italianpeople were already heterogeneous before the days of Romanglory; then for several centuries they incorporated thetraits of many races through the untold thousands ofslaves brought from the ends of the world; and for thepast fifteen hundred years the valley of the Po has been afavorite rendezvous for migrating and fighting men. Forsuch reasons Madison Grant, speaking from the viewpoint



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of physical anthropology, says " there exists no such thingas a 'Latin,' a 'Celtic/ a 'German/ a 'Slavic/ or even anAryan or Caucasian race."

This is not to say that striking race differences do notexist; but it is to say that the assumption of racial purityand solidarity is one of the illusions that have affected veryprofoundly the course of history. While sociologists havebeen pointing to racial complexity as an important andessential condition of continued progress, the chauvinistsof every country have been claiming a special racial purityand superiority for their own people. This myth culminatesin those other mystical doctrines of a chosen people and aracial mission which to some degree become sooner or latera part of the national tradition of every aspiring and suc?cessful people.

Moreover it seems clear that unless those elements ofhumanity which diverse races have in common are morenumerous and fundamental than their real differences,then must wars continue until inferior races are eitherexterminated or brought under the dominion of benevolentdespotisms. But American experience in molding to com?mon ideals a most motley array of humankind is a har?binger of future peace among men; for it is no exaggerationto say that the diversity of races now being amalgamatedin this country is as great as the entire gamut of racialdifferences in all Europe, if not in the entire world. But

here, with freedom and security, the sentiment of national?ity dissipates like exhaust steam under the blue sky.

2. It is not religion or languageIt is easy in our day to show that it is not religious affili?

ation which is at the basis of nationality. Though an abun?dance of religious bigotry is still active in many countries,the major lines of religious cleavage are rather indifferentto nationalistic groupings. With certain obvious excep?tions where religious differences are a partial cause ofnational schism, modern nations include a variety of reli?gious sects living together in a state of mutual toleration



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such as to make a religious war unthinkable. Nor bythis is it intended to deny that similarity of religious beliefsis an aid in the development of a strong sentiment ofnationality.Nor is it language which is the unifying force in national?ity. Welsh and Scotch are still spoken by good Britishers;the Armoricans, Basques, and Flemings of France speaktheir own languages but are loyal Frenchmen; nearly halfof the Belgians speak only French, and most of the re?mainder speak only Flemish or low-German, but the devo?tion of all to their common king has proven truly heroic.Though the Belgians thus have two official languages, theSwiss have three and are yet able to raise an army ofhundreds of thousands to defend their native land; and inAmerica we have a perfect babel of tongues but an astonish?ing solidarity.

3. It is a sentiment of solidarityAnd while the chief source of international anarchy isthus not race, nor religion, nor even language, neither is itgroup customs, nor national heroes, nor tribal totems,flags or shibboleths, though all of these may be its symbols.In fact, Professor Ramsay Muir, while calling nationality"the culmination of modern history," says also, "There isnot a single infallible test of what constitutes a nation."And Arnold Toynbee corroborates him by saying that"precisely the same group of factors may produce national?ity here, and there have no effect." Holland Rose calls

nationality "an instinct" which "cannot be exactly de?fined," but yet he defines it as "a union of hearts oncemade, never unmade?a spiritual conception, unconquer?able, indestructible." And thus we come to that mysteri?ous social force which holds a people together in one solidmass inwhich all the superficial multiplicities and diversi?ties are overwhelmed by a fundamental homogeneity. Thisforce, at once so unifying and so divisive, the source ofunion and of war, is none other than the elusive sentiment

much extolled by chauvinists and much condemned bypacifists which we call patriotism.



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III. Operations and Effects of PatriotismThis is, like nationality, not readily definable. It signifies

loyalty to one's nation and implies the obligation to serveand defend it. It is thus a passion which all normal menfeel, and which in time of our country's peril commands ourinstant loyalty. Of all the emotions that move men toaction it is the most capacious. When it is aroused thereis no other social force comparable to it in the completeness

with which it dominates all other springs of action in allsorts and conditions of men. It lifts the average man upout of the concerns of a work-a-day world into the noblestspirit of devotion; it quickens the pulse of the sluggard,reforms the wayward, forces generosity from the stingy,arouses the plodder to dreams of heroic deeds, gives courageto the cowardly, and makes the hearts of the shrewd andcrafty wolves of society swell with an ostensible love ofcountry. In its face local feuds are forgotten; the bitterstruggles of parties and classes are submerged; differences ofcreed, of social status, and even of race are obliterated.

Under these circumstances only the group leaders mayspeak. The citizen must offer himself in silence as a

willing sacrifice on the altar of his country in whatevermanner those in authority may dictate. Even honest criti?

cism is anathema; the conscientious objector, who in timesof peace is praised as a courageous man who dares to standagainst the world for what he

believes right, is denouncedas a sneaking coward and herded into prison. Theindividual rights of free speech, press, and assembly soessential to democratic government, so zealously guardedduring peace, and so boastfully displayed to an admiring;world on the national holidays, not only cease to exist butare even denounced and proscribed as inimical to the publicsafety. The noble sentiments of toleration are fiercely de?nounced, as is also individual variation from type which isvigorously defended during peace under the

ideals of in?dividual liberty and initiative. Every social institutionis brought into line ;all organs of public opinion send forth aconstant stream of uniform suggestions ; the appeal ismade



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PATRIOTISM and peace 511

through church and lodge and every customary associa?tion, until the members of the social group coalesce into asolid sociality that surpasses the fondest imaginings of theUtopian Socialist.

It is not unnatural that such a titanic social force shouldstir a man's emotional nature to its depths and especiallyduring war, for war hallows every cause. At such timespatriotism, like a resistless and mysterious genius, fills theentire fabric of society with its magical power. Few in?dividuals escape its enchantment, and almost no one daresbrook its hostility. While it ennobles the soul with thesublime spirit of self-sacrifice, it compels men to dilutethe honesty of their thoughts; makes cowards of all butthe most stalwart souls by forcing them to substitute the

worse for the better reason and the lower ideal for one theyfeel to be higher. A bad citizen may thus be a goodpatriot, while George Washington and Samuel Adams,James Otis and Patrick Henry show us that good citizensmay be very indifferent patriots. Under its guise everysort of sinister human purpose thrives, for anything whichcan be made to appear patriotic is instantly and deeplyapproved. To encounter a suspicion of lack of patriotismcreates a greater defilement than the violation of an ancienttaboo. As in the days of witchcraft suspects are whipped,tarred, and feathered or hanged, or like the distinguishedlist in "Who's Who in Pacifism and Radicalism," areimmolated on the altar of militarism amid the shouts ofthe mob and the secret glee of the patriots who find theestablished social system the best of all possible systems.In other words, patriotism gives full sway to fear, unbridlesthe lusts and brutalities of savage man, intensifies ourinnate suggestibility, and subordinates the mind to everysort of delusion and deceit. Unfortunately there is noprinted guide for the proper conduct of human affairs,and so deep is the mystery of social processes that only theignorant and the simple have complete confidence in theirsolutions of social problems. In times of stress thereforethe social mind finds refuge in those torrents of instinctiveemotion which arise from the deepest recesses of human

THE JOURNALOF INTERNATIONAL ELATIONS,VOL. 12, NO. 4, 1922



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nature and which propel the social group like a rudderlessvessel before an ocean storm. Patriotism makes of nationalthought "not a cerebration but a contagion, not an activ?ity but an epidemic."It is a truism that patriotism effectually blinds thezealous patriots of each country to those faults whichare so plain to the patriots of an enemy country. Indeed,one of the most common bits of sorcery accomplished bythe spirit of patriotism is the subversion of conscience andthe setting up of a special and higher moral code to whichthe demonized patriot swears allegiance in the truly ob?scurantist aphorism, "My country, right or wrong."All patriotisms are supported largely by mystical and

mythical elements and cannot be sustained without them.The Germans nursed their national egotism on doctrinesof the mission of the Hohenzollerns to restore the ancientglories of the Holy Empire; the divine destiny of the Ger?

man people to spread their culture throughout the world;the political incapacity of the French in contrast with theirown innate political sagacity; the physical deteriorationof the English in contrast to the racial efflorescence ofthemselves; and the governmental inefficiency and militaryclumsiness of the American democracy in contrast to theirown efficiency and precision due to a peculiar Teutonicgift for organization. But let us not suppose that Germanyis alone in the delusions and excesses of patriotic intoxica?tion. The one great social utility of the sentiment ofpatriotism is to stimulate those group activities which re?late to rivalry with other groups, to arouse the martialspirit, and to sustain the fighting edge of the group will.It specializes therefore in everything that will inflate thenational ego. Like the Indians who aroused the necessarycourage, procured the necessary suffusion of wonder-work?ing mana, by means of the war-dance, so every nationbelittles and caricatures its rivals and indulges in prodigiousself-praise. According to the American press the Germanswere for many months before the end of the war lacking invalor and fighting spirit and were being captured and killedby the millions, while the Americans greatly exceeded the



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enemy in valor and love of battle, were seldom killed, andoften a few of them would capture an amazing number ofGermans. The enemy also were mostly boys and werestarving besides, and yet the brave boys in khaki were allheroes and giant killers. The national ardor in everycountry was fed by most excruciating tales of fiendishcruelty and wanton destruction by the enemy, and no tale

was too preposterous to be believed. In the recent warevery nation conceived its cause to be just. In all ofthem precisely the same appeals to national tradition,love of country, and the ideals of truth, justice, and liberty

were made to arouse and sustain the sharp edge of thefighting spirit. Words which in the mouths of our ownorators aroused in us an afflatus of soul, would, when usedby the enemy, as Gott mit uns, arouse only scorn andderision. Neither opponent could understand why theother was willing to fight for such low and sinister motivesas were imputed to it, while each felt certain that it wasfighting not merely for its own honor and glory but for thesecurity and welfare of civilization. We Americans cannotignore the fact that we have been moved by the doctrineof Manifest Destiny; that though a hybrid mixture of

unsurpassed complexity, we cherish the myth of the AngloSaxon mission; nor that each and every one of us is deeplyconscious of a desire to spread American institutions rightround the earth. This is all natural and inevitable; but inthis very consciousness is the problem of the world, forevery aspiring nationality throbs with the same impulse tolive and grow and prove its supremacy in the conflicts oflife.IV. Origin and Fundamental Nature of the Patriotic

ImpulseWhence comes this superhuman force? It is as deep andmysterious as life itself and can be explained only in the

light of that evolutionary process from which all creationsprings. Indeed, of all the enigmas of nature, man him?self is themost perplexing. The complexity and versatilityof his capacities make him an object of wonder and of



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mystery even to himself. That view of him which con?ceived his conduct as guided by the beacon light of purereason and hence as seeking with a mathematical certaintythe maximum of utility with the least of effort was simpleindeed. On the other hand, the efforts for sociological

purposes to subsum the basic elements of his nature underthe three major instincts of self-preservation, love, andhunger have not proved satisfactory; for it is repeatedlyobserved that, at least in times of social crisis, the individualwill subordinate all his self-regarding instincts to performacts of supreme self-sacrifice in the interests of his group.

He clings to life with utmost tenacity, and yet when arousedby the thousand and one subtle appeals to his social in?stinct he freely and with every appearance of consummatepleasure lays down his life for his country. Man, is thus,far from that coldly calculating rational creature of theearly utilitarians and the classical economists; he is aboveall a social animal with a vast reservoir of group sentimentsdeposited during the age-long struggle for survival.

Man is in fact fundamentally gregarious by nature. Hehas never lived in isolation but always in groups. Lackingspecial organs of defense man found strength, as did theherd and the pack, in group solidarity. Consequentlythe struggle for existence on the human plane has beenfundamentally a struggle of group with group. Since,then, his survival turned largely on the perfection of hisgregarious instinct, there has been achieved in man akeen sensitiveness to the call of the group. This herdinstinct, as Trotter calls it, is, therefore, the very basis of

human society and the most profound aspect of man'ssocial nature. It is for the group what the instinct of selfpreservation is for the individual. It is aroused only intimes of stress and danger; group fear in some form isessential to its development; when awakened it not onlygrips every tribesman in an atmosphere of electrified sug?gestibility, but stirs within his bodily mechanism the in?ternal secretory apparatus whose products are essentialto deeds of valor. It is in its strength and vigor an as?sertion of the group will to live, and is therefore as deep



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patriotism and peace 515

and mysterious and indeed as permanent as the eternalnisus of nature, the insistent push of everything that throbswith life and energy.

Patriotism is best conceived as rooted in that age-longstruggle which Grumplowicz called Der Rassenkampf. Itis at once the most profound and the most elemental mani?festation of the gregarious instinct. Thus viewed itstremendous power, its contradictory effects, it lack ofcold rationality, its heroisms, and its insane brutalities areall readily explainable. We thus find a common sub?stratum for the war-like proclivities of primitive horde andtribe, medieval city and principality, and the modernnation and empire. We see why it is that in every group,primitive or civilized, ancient or modern, large or small,Scottish clan or British Empire, there is an instinctiveloyalty to all that is related to or symbolic of the group life;and we see why all such objects pass through a process ofidealization, so that in the end even the most sordidmaterialadvantages of the group are fought for in the name of libertyand humanity. Even divine justice and the will of Godbecome synonymous with the needs and aspirations of thegroup. Among primitive peoples the most conspicuousobjects of loyalty were kings, who because of their supposeddivinity became the embodiment of all that was precious inthe group life; and the preservation of dynastic prestigethus became through countless centuries the first object ofevery patriot's devotion. Modern democracy rejects thedivine right of kings but holds with instinctive tenacity tothe divine right of the state to sovereign self-determination,while among democratic peoples living in a capitalisticage almost equally precious objects of group solicitude aretrade rights and opportunities. Viewing patriotism as aninstinctive manifestation of the group will to live, we see

why national honor holds such a vital place in internationalrelations. Any surrender of acquired privilege, as in thePanama Canal tolls case, is accomplished only after asevere wrench to the national instinct of self-assertion;every compromise at the peace conference constituted anaffront to national prestige and in the view of the thorough



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patriot tarnished the shining shield of his nation's honor.Indeed the sense of national honor is at bottom simplyanother name for the deep emotional reaction of the socialgroup toward anything which affects its egotism, its long?ing for prestige.

This view of patriotism makes clear the meaning of thestatement that "without patriotism war would be incon?ceivable today." It is "a spirit of particularism;" it isclearly out of harmony with the civilization of all Christen?dom, based as this is on a science and scholarship that are, as

Professor Veblen says, "homogeneously cosmopolitan,"an industrial technique that is international, and politicaland esthetic cultures that transcend mountains and oceans.

Yet the patriotic animus still lives on; it seems as intensetoday as in the centuries past; being an emotional manifesta?tion of the herd instinct, it does not have to be learned, whilethe objects to which it is attached and the symbols andshibboleths which arouse it are solely matters of grouptradition; it may be as ferocious or as generous in themind of the child as in that of the most learned scientist.

Nothing could reveal more clearly the elemental nature,the instinctive character, of patriotism. At the very basisof the problem of permanent peace is, therefore, the questionof how to manipulate or control this million-year oldpropensity. Man is a fighting animal; and it ismuch tohis credit that he has been, for otherwise he would neverhave held his own in the merciless struggle for existence.It seems clearly established that the common progenitorof man and the higher anthropoids was not a fragile,shrinking tree-shrew, but a large, brutish creature with a

well-developed fighting instinct. Man throughout his his?tory has shown himself brave and heroic. The historicalraces have, during their prime, been bold and aggressiveand have not shrunk from inflicting pain and death onthose with whom they came in contact. Every greatnation has glorified war, apotheosized its great militaryleaders, and endowed its soldiery with immortal bliss withinthe gates of Valhalla. You may think this an unfortunatepicture of human nature and, of course it is not the whole



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patriotism and peace 517

story, but I think we must accept it as true so far as itgoes. For, I do not believe that a timid, sympathetic,highly altruistic creature would have succeeded in spreadinghimself over the entire globe in the face of ferocious beastsand in spite of wind and tide, desert and mountain. Butof course, it must be added that no other animal has carriedon so consistently a war of extermination against its ownkind. It is no idle whim which ledMadison Grant to findin the European War a symbol of "The Passing of TheGreat Race," the Nordic blondes of the Baltic basin, whoas Franks gave their name to France, as Angles gave theirname to England and as Germans gave their name to

Germany. The conquering spirit which led these nations tospread their culture throughout the world found a tragicnemesis in pitting them against each other in a long deathstruggle.V. The Objects and Scope of Patriotic Attachment

ChangeBut if the patriotic animus be detrimental to the future

of our civilization, is there no escape from the enchantingclutch of itsmagical power? If our thesis has been correct,there is an escape, but it can be accomplished only by thetransfer of our supreme loyalty from nationalism to civiliza?tion, from country to humanity. We each and all retaina hierarchy of loyalties. We wish to see our voting pre?cinct or our ward shine by comparison with others, but weforget these local attachments when there is a contest be?tween our city and another. Each has a warm spot in his

heart for his commonwealth, or for his section of the countrywhen one is contrasted with another, but these are as noth?ing compared to love of country when she faces the foe.

Now, all of these local sentiments are relatively weak andfeeble, amounting only to a certain pleasure in local prestigeand a moderate willingness to serve local ends. All arefar from that flaming sentiment which, rooted in thegroup struggle for existence, elicits from us devotion untodeath for the group and the ideals to which supreme loyaltyis attached.



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This complete self-abnegation, this triumphant conse?cration, reveals the true nature of patriotism. Conse?quently, in spite of all the absurdities we have noted inits manifestations, it is the noblest of sentiments. It isthe negation of selfishness, the essence of altruism, andneeds only a proper setting to make it the secure basis for areligion of humanity.

We all agree that for one city or commonwealth to take uparms against another over trade privileges would today bea gross absurdity; but American history had its HartfordConvention, its Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, itsSouth Carolina rebellion, and its Civil War. In fact thedevelopment of every modern nation is a history of thegradual transfer of supreme loyalty from local groups to

more inclusive ones. What was at one time a hundredfighting principalities each burning with racial egotism andmartial zeal, are reformed by military power and economic

interests into a dozen, and these dozen in the course of timecoalesce into a great nation. What has been the secret ofthis transformation?

In the past, conquest has been a chief factor, as is shownby the history of modern European states and America.But conquest itself does not create new loyalty in the heartsof the conquered and may even sanctify an ancient allegi?ance. Our own South wTas not made loyal by defeat and theiron heel of the conqueror. And yet by the close of thecentury her sons marched side by side with those of theNorth in the war with Spain. This new patriotism of theSouth was the silent work of years of security within thecommon country and of an increasing economic solidarity.So long as contiguous nationalities seek to dominate andexploit each other, so long will local patriotisms flourishand bring forth their inevitable travail. For patriotism israce fear and will transmute itself into a higher loyalty only

with the development of a sense of security and of economicsolidarity within the larger social unit.



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VI. Permanent Peace Must be Based on a GenuineInternationalism

1. Its material conditionsIn order, therefore, to advance the cause of international

peace it seems necessary to achieve two fundamental things.In the first place, the material interests of the great nations

must be brought more and more into harmony. So recenthas been the development of national unity and so persist?ently have all nations thought of themselves as economicallyand politically independent that we have developed nobasis for the psychology of internationalism.

Nevertheless we are apparently at a point in the develop?ment of the Western World in which the material basis ofinternationalism is developing rapidly. The writings ofNorman Angel in the "Great Illusion" and "The Fruitsof Victory" have presented this aspect of affairs mostcogently. The war itself was a prodigious demonstrationthat every great industrial nation must inevitably lose

more by modern war than it can ever hope to gain thereby.In other words, as has been frequently pointed out,

Europe has become an economic unity. While the nationsare still politically independent they have become eco?nomically interdependent. The war demonstrated thatnone of them is able to maintain the level of pre-war pros?perity apart from the prosperity of its neighbors. The warhas therefore prepared the way for a recognition of the factthat the material welfare of all Europe presents a unifiedproblem: that whether they like it or not, friend and foegrow rich or poor together.

Moreover, the war produced a condition which is rapidlyprecipitating the Western World in the direction of inter?national capitalism. During the 19th century the nationalcapitalistic state with its accompanying imperialism andits system of protective tariffs was the dominating actor onthe international stage. Several European countries hadinvested heavily in the Americas and many of them hadinvested largely outside of Europe, but, aside from Frenchinvestments in Russia, none of them had a large stake in



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the economic development of any other. But now Europeowes us not less than fifteen billion dollars, she owes Englandother billions, and other continental countries owe Francestill other billions of dollars. In the era that we are un?doubtedly entering the investment of one great nation inanother, the purchases of one nation in another, and the

marketing of surplus products by one nation in another andthe common investment of capital by the citizens of manycountries in the same industrial ventures are becomingfundamentally important in the determination of nationalpolicy. Not only is the financial stake of the advancedcountries in one another now a prodigious sum, but thenational finances of numerous European nationalities are insuch a precarious condition that only international assist?ance will enable them to recover their balance. In fact,we are faced with the bankruptcy of more than one nationalunit and such disorder in the finances of others, upon whosefinancial soundness the prosperity of the great industrialpowers so intimately depends, that we may count on futureconferences for the purpose of setting the internationalfinancial mechanism in running order. It is much as it wasamong the American colonies after the Revolution, duringwhat is known as the Critical Period. There was a stateof financial chaos, of trade restriction, tariff warfare, andlocal jealousy which led all the far-seeing minds of the era torealize the necessity of the formation of amore perfect unionfor the promotion of the common welfare.

In addition there are two other tendencies worth noting.One of these is the tendency of the capitalistic interests ofdifferent countries but engaged in the same industry toenter into world combines. This had begun before thewar in steel, tobacco, oil and shipping, and may be expectedto take on a new development just as soon as internationalrelations are again established. And then there is thefact already recognized that the advanced industrial nations

must jointly participate in the development of backwardareas and the production of the raw materials of the machineindustries. In other words, the rapid development of in?ternational capitalism, the beginnings of which we now



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very clearly observe, will furnish an increasingly firmfoundation for the development of the psychology of inter?nationalism upon which the establishment of a real internation depends.

2. Its psychological basisBut if we are to have a genuine internationalism it must

be grounded in popular sentiment and imagination. Napo?leon said that men are ruled by their imaginations andcertainly all that one need to add is that men are ruled bytheir emotions and imaginations. On great problems ofgroup interest men do not reason calmly and objectively,but start emotionally from certain great ultimates whichhave become so deeply implanted in their psychic life as toseem sacred and beyond question. This may be tribaltotem, royal emblem, or nation's flag. Consequently, whileit is true that nations aim to follow their self-interests ininternational relations, history has amply demonstrated thatthe bias of patriotic sentiment greatly warps the conceptionof what the self-interest truly is. From this standpoint of

material welfare, purblind nationalism dictates policies ofseparatism and antagonism. Economically, Ireland is aprovince of Great Britain and dependent on the Britishmarket for its livelihood, but the Irish Free State is anecessary concession to the sentiment of Irish nationalism.But I do not mean to belittle the importance of the essen?tial material basis of internationalism; I put it first.America herself constitutes a great illustration. Our Union

was preserved by war and conquest, but it did not becomedeeply implanted in the imagination and sentiment of theSouth for a full generation after the Civil War. Mean?

while, railroads had been built north and south, northerncapital had pressed for investment in the South, and traderelations between the two sections had grown to extensiveproportions. New political issues and a new generationthen enabled the magic personality of Roosevelt to breakthe Solid South in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.

The growth of economic interdependence is therefore anessential basis for the establishment of a psychic foundation



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for unity of rival groups, and it is not likely that unity canprogress much beyond limits set by material factors, as isillustrated by the present estrangement between Franceand England. But the establishment of a genuine inter?nationalism which will put an end to war will not be assureduntil the ideal of a great inter-state is implanted in thepopular consciousness as one of life's ultimate values.

Now nothing could reveal more clearly how far we arefrom the goal of permanent peace, for nationalism is stillsupreme in the popular mind. No doubt, immense serviceto peace is rendered by successful international conferences,such as that on disarmament. They create an atmosphereof mutual understanding and confidence which is inimical tothe spirit of national provincialism under which patriotismthrives most intensely. International conferences of thosenations among whom friction and conflict of interests weredeveloping might well serve to prevent war, so long as theywere successful. But their success is always endangeredby the uncompromising spirit of national self-esteem andself-assertion. This prevents the national representativesfrom surrendering anything deemed important for the

maintenance of national prestige or the further expansionof the national ego. France will not even permit a dis?cussion at Genoa of questions of reparations and treatyrevision which are clearly fundamental to the restoration ofpeace and prosperity in Europe. It is obvious that theworld is not prepared for anything revolutionary and thereis not in any country one single statesman with the vision,and at the same time a grip on the popular imagination,such as to enable him to lead European peoples rapidlytoward a new international organization.

It does not seem probable, therefore, that one shouldconfidently expect permanent peace to have been estab?lished until modern patriotisms have waned and have beentransmuted into a similar and equally intense emotionalattachment to the symbols of internationalism. Permanentpeace will rest on secure foundation only when there hasbeen a genuine inter-state to which the sovereignty ofseparatist nationalities is subordinated through its ultimate



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power to compel obedience. Meanwhile, nations must havegrown immensely more interdependent, their mutual in?terests must have devised amultiplicity of new institutionsof international cooperation, they must have repeatedlysignified their willingness to accommodate their minor selfinterests to their larger and permanent ones by mutualcompromise, and they must at the same time have de?veloped a much greater attachment to those symbols ofinternationalism which must displace the symbols ofnationalism. If we look forward seriously to the develop?

ment of the international mind, then we must set seriouslyto work to transmute the powerful sentiment of nationalpatriotism into an automatic and ultimate regulator ofpopular emotions and imaginations by a new set of symbolsand a new and stirring ritual to arouse the deep-seated in?stincts and emotions of man to unquestioned devotion tothe cause of humanity rather than the cause of tribe ornation.

journal of international relations - 1922 - 5.pdf

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