World Affairs Institute

War, Patriotism and Peace by Leo TolstoiAdvocate of Peace through Justice, Vol. 89, No. 5 (May, 1927), p. 320Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20661615 .

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320 ADVOCATE OF PEACE May

eat, bathe, and nap, quite as much, appar

ently, as they do the bits of the Charlemagne

myth upon which they continually stumble.

The little towns which have lived undis

turbed for eleven centuries among their

mountains are casually sketched. There is

a bit about the natives, more about the

lunches and dinners and beds.

The Republic of Andorra, itself, the ob

jective of the whole trip, is so incidentally handled that one feels afresh how unimpor tant is a goal compared to the thrill of ap

proaching it. Just what does constitute the

interest of Andorra? Is it solely the diffi culty of access? We are compelled to refer

to guide books for real information. Even

inaccessibility will soon be lost, however, for the trampers found to their distress that bus routes are soon to climb even to

Andorra.

Wab, Patriotism and Peace. By Leo Tol

stoi, Pp. 124. Vanguard Press, New York, 1926. Price, 50 cents.

The anti-war convictions of the great Rus

sian novelist are too familiar to need re

capitulation here. A member of the old Rus

sian ruling class, he early learned to resent war and all other forms of oppression. By choice he lived as a peasant, though born a

Count. He worked with his hands and

wrote the novels which have made him

famous.

But his pen was busy, too, almost up to

the time of his death, in 1910, trying to win people to his views on brotherhood.

The articles and letters republished here

are a valuable part of the history of the Eu

ropean peace movement.

The Vanguard Press is republishing, at a

nominal price, numerous other books, of the

sort which have questioned the prevailing social order. Among them are William Mor

ris' "News from Nowhere" and Bellamy's

"Looking Backward." There are other books more modern, of a radical trend, and an

other classic, though abridged, George's work on the single tax, "Progress and Pov

erty."

Man Is War. By JoJm Carter. Pp. 398,

index, maps. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indian

apolis, 1926. Price, $3.50.

"Civilization bas harnessed to the use of

war the primitive forces which are as old as

man; rhythm, vanity, herd instinct, and

rallying instinct. Their symbols are the fife

and drum, the uniform, the regiment, and

the flag. Against these the peace-mongers storm in vain, for they are so deep in human

nature that they can never be eliminated."

John Garter, whose sources for this book

are, he says, "ten years of youth in a dozen

different countries and a score of cities," takes up, one after another, the tools devised

by man for building a world and finds them sure to build for war as well as for co

operation. And this because of man's in

herent nature.

The fearless, clever manner in which he

attacks his subject is arresting. He looks

upon political bodies and finds them sure to collide with each other. He looks at the

League of Nations, and though it can pre vent some difficulties, it has, says the au

thor, seen some forty wars since its incep

tion, after which it probably stopped one.

He considers, too, that British statesmen

have made the League machinery an almost

perfect instrument for British diplomacy. He discusses proletarchy, theocracy, diplo

macy, and in each he sees seed of more con

flict than harmony. Communism and capi

talism, not quite separable in practice, both hold menaces. Of the two, only capitaUsm is workable; but it is full of pitfalls.

Mr. Carter seldom swerves to actual bitter

ness, though the "Diplomatic Dictionary" at

the end of the book is caustic enough. He

seems rather to be honestly trying to un

cover the facts.

A few harassing problems may, he con

cludes, be solved by man. Certain present

dangers may quite probably be overcome;

but in each topic his logic takes him always to the dead level of this: "The world will find peace when man is extinct; for man is

war."

There is no joy visible in his conclusions.

He frankly speaks of "danger spots" as

though war were a calamity. He seems to

share the world longing, if not its dream of

peace. Does it not occur to Mr. Carter that

this longing is also rooted deep in man?

The whole book, in fact, is a testimony to

the great human dream of peace. And who

dare prophesy that so deep a hunger may

not one day harness even the rhythm, the

vanity, and the mass instincts of the race

to the service of its dream?

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