ABSTRACT
In war, not only does the State become absolute in its relations towards the individual, but militarism becomes absolute within the State. This truth is attested in Great Britain by the virtually unlimited powers over the citizen vested by the Defence of the Realm Act in “the competent military authority,” and by the novel powers exercised by Orders in Council for the application of that and other emergency Acts. War is the red flowering of militarism, and it leaves behind it the seeds of more militarism. This is the natural law of human history, of which the theory of “a war to end war” appears to be a wild defiance. The part played by wealth in the economy of power and the arts of militarism and war was radically altered when modern capitalist enterprise set in.
