France has got the steel of Here, at any rate, is an elesure," I asked, "that wars

"are fought with steel; weapons may change, but steel remains the core of all modern warfare. Europe, and Germany has lost it. ment of permanency." "Are you of the future will be fought with steel?" A few weeks later I talked with a German. "What about aluminum ?" "Some think," he said, "that the next war will be fought with electricity." And on this a vista opens out of electrical rays which could paralyze the engines of a motor car, could claw down aeroplanes from the sky, and conceivably be made destructive of human life or human vision. Then there are explosives. Have we reached the end? Has Science turned its last page on them? May there not be methods of using explosive energy incomparably more intense than anything heretofore discovered? Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings-nay, to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke? Could not explosives even of the existing type be guided automatically in flying machines by wireless or other rays, without a human pilot, in ceaseless process upon a hostile city, arsenal, camp, or dockyard?

As for poison gas and chemical warfare in all its forms, only the first chapter has been written of a terrible book. Certainly every one of these new avenues to destruction is being studied on both sides of the Rhine, with all the science and patience of which man is capable. And why should it be supposed that these resources will be limited to Inorganic Chemistry? A study of disease-of pestilences methodically prepared and deliberately launched upon man and beast-is certainly being pursued in the laboratories of more than one great country. Blight to destroy crops, anthrax to slay horses and cattle, plague to poison not armies only but whole districtssuch are the lines along which military science is remorselessly advancing.

It is evident that whereas an equally contested war under such conditions might work the ruin of the world and cause an immeasurable diminution of the human race, the possession by one side of some overwhelming scientific advantage would lead

to the complete enslavement of the unwary party. Not only are the powers now in the hand of man capable of destroying the life of nations, but for the first time they afford to one group of civilized men the opportunity of reducing their opponents to absolute helplessness.

In barbarous times superior martial virtues-physical strength, courage, skill, discipline-were required to secure such a supremacy; and in the hard evolution of mankind the best and fittest stocks came to the fore. But no such saving guarantee exists to-day. There is no reason why a base, degenerate, immoral race should not make an enemy far above them in quality the prostrate subject of their caprice or tyranny, simply because they happened to be possessed at a given moment of some new death-dealing or terror-working process and were ruthless in its employment. The liberties of men are no longer to be guarded by their natural qualities, but by their dodges; and superior virtue and valor may fall an easy prey to the latest diabolical trick.

In the somber paths of destructive science there was one new turning-point which seemed to promise a corrective to these mortal tendencies. It might have been hoped that the electromagnetic waves would in certain scales be found capable of detonating explosives of all kinds from a great distance. Were such a process discovered in time to become common property, war would in important respects return again to the crude but healthy limits of the barbarous ages. The sword, the spear, the bludgeon, and above all the fighting man, would regain at a bound their old sovereignty. But it is depressing to learn that the categories into which these rays are divided are now so fully explored that there is not much expectation of this. All the hideousness of the Explosive era will continue; and to it will surely be added the gruesome complications of poison and of pestilence scientifically applied.

THE PERIL OF THE FUTURE

Such, then, is the peril with which mankind menaces itself. Means of destruction incalculable in their effects, wholesale

and frightful in their character, and unrelated to any form of human merit: the march of Science unfolding ever more appalling possibilities; and the fires of hatred burning deep in the hearts of some of the greatest peoples of the world, fanned by continual provocation and unceasing fear and fed by the deepest sense of national wrong or national danger! On the other hand, there is the blessed respite of exhaustion, offering to the nations a final chance to control their destinies and avert what may well be a general doom. Surely if a sense of self-preservation still exists among men, if the will to live resides not merely in individuals or nations but in humanity as a whole, the prevention of the supreme catastrophe ought to be the paramount object of all endeavor.

Against the gathering but still distant tempest the League of Nations, deserted by the United States, scorned by Soviet Russia, flouted by Italy, distrusted equally by France and Germany, raises feebly but faithfully its standards of sanity and hope. Its structure, airy and unsubstantial, framed of shining but too often visionary idealism, is in its present form incapable of guarding the world from its dangers and of protecting mankind from itself. Yet it is through the League of Nations alone that the path to safety and salvation can be found. To sustain and aid the League of Nations is the duty of all. To reinforce it and bring it into vital and practical relation with actual world-politics by sincere agreements and understanding between the great Powers, between the leading races, should be the first aim of all who wish to spare their children torments and disasters compared to which those we have suffered will be but a pale preliminary.

MICHAEL COLLINS

INDEPENDENCE FOR IRELAND

Michael Collins, born in 1892, was one of the most romantic figures in the fight for Irish freedom. He took an active part in the rebellion of 1916 and aided de Valera to escape from an English prison in 1918. From 1918 he disappeared, and the story of his hairbreadth escapes and many disguises has become a legend. He joined the cause of settlement and reconciliation and was with Griffith one of the plenipotentiaries to London and a leading figure in the fight for the treaty. After Griffith's death he became head of the Irish Free State Provisional Government, but was killed by the Irregulars in an ambush in August, 1922, only a few days after Griffith's death. This speech was delivered in the Dail Eireann in the debate over the treaty, December 19, 1921.

WE delegates came back from London on that momentous Saturday to a meeting of the Cabinet. Certain things happened at the Cabinet meeting, and we returned to put before the British delegation, as well as we could, our impression of the decisions, I will not say conclusions, arrived at by the Cabinet. I do not want unduly to press the word decisions. I want to be fair to everybody. We went away with certain impressions in our minds, and we did our best to put them on the paper that we handed to the British delegates.

It was well understood at the Cabinet meeting that Sir James Craig was to receive a reply from the British Premier on the Tuesday morning. Some conclusion between the British and ourselves had therefore to be come to, and it had to be handed to the British delegation on Monday night. We of the Irish delegation came away with a document which none of us would sign. It had to be faced, and if in the meantime a document was presented which we could sign there was no opportunity of referring it to Dublin. On Monday night we did arrive at a conclusion to which we thought we could agree and to which

we did say "yes" across the table. It was very late. On the same day I signed the document and I do not regard my word, then or now, as of less importance than my signature to the document. [Cheers.] The answer which I gave as I put my signature to the document was the same as I would give in Dublin, Berlin, New York, or Paris. [Cheers.]

The distance from London to Dublin was of some importance, and it was not easy to consult the Irish Cabinet and other friends. There has been talk about the atmosphere of London and about the "slippery slopes." If the members who were so eloquent knew about the "slippery slopes" before the delegation went over, why did they not speak then? My signature was given in honor and I am going to stand by it. I do not seek refuge in subterfuge, and I stand by my acts and my signature before the Assembly. [Cheers.] It has been also suggested that the delegation broke down before the first bit of British bluff. I would remind the Deputies who made that remark that the British put up a pretty good bluff for the last two years in this country and that I did not break down before that bluff. [Cheers.] Does anybody think that I have in any way lowered my position during the two months' negotiations? The result of the delegation's labors is before the Dail to reject or accept. The President has suggested that better results might have been obtained by more skillful handling. That is not the issue, for surely the capability of the delegates was not expected to improve or increase because of their selection as plenipotentiaries. If it is thought now that through stupidity we failed in our task that, I submit, is a greater reflection on the Dail than it is upon the delegates. It is even suggested that by our action we have made a resumption of the conflict inevitable. Again I would emphasize the fact that the responsibility rests entirely on the Dail for having selected us. It will be remembered that at the time I protested against my own selection, and that I urged the President to go. It was then that the objections should have been raised, and not now.

The Treaty was not signed under personal intimidation. At a particular moment I was called upon to give a decision. The decision remained the same. The whole position between Great Britain and Ireland has been a position of intimidation. We