SLOUTZKI, N. M. The World Armaments Race, 1919-1939. Pp. 129. Geneva: Geneva Research Center, 1941. 40¢

• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100135
• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Date: 01 May 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

200
against the caucus-convention system is
ments Year Book. In this study the author
traced with accurate detail, and the leading
sets out to co-ordinate the available statisti-
part played by La Follette is pointed up
cal material on the world armaments race
with adequate emphasis. The part of the
of the two decades preceding this war, in a
essay which deals with the growth and
single volume of 129 pages. Most of the
development of the direct primary idea in
work is devoted to facts and figures on the
La Follette’s speeches, beginning with the
amounts of money spent for armaments by
one delivered at the University of Michigan
the various countries, and the value of the
in 1898, is particularly well done.
armaments they exported.
The essay does more than describe the
If the reader should consult this book for
development of the direct primary system.
the purpose of finding out the potential
It throws a good deal of new light upon
military strength of the powers, he would
Wisconsin’s great political leader. It also
be disappointed. It is not that kind of a
relates political reforms and the rise of
study. It is a dispassionate statistical sur-
progressivism to the economic and racial
vey by a former League official who has
divisions in the state. The assertions ’about
written up the mad debauch of the two
the &dquo;tremendous impetus&dquo; which the enact-
decades preceding this war as a factual case
ment of the direct primary law in Wiscon-
history. As such, it is a grim warning, for,
sin had upon the whole movement in the
as the author says in the preface, the &dquo;most
Nation are probably true, but they are not
tragic feature of a race in armaments is that
established by any evidence in the essay
once begun only the end of a war can bring
itself.
In Michigan and other near-by
it to a close.&dquo; He arrives at the conclusion
states, similar struggles for the establish-
that the long postponed Disarmament Con-
ment of the primary were going on...