TATE, MERZE. The Disarmament Illusion: The Movement for a Limitation of Armaments to 1907. Pp. xiv, 398. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1942. $4.00

• Published date: 01 November 1942
• Date: 01 November 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222400137
• Author: Louis Martin Sears
• Subject Matter: Articles

201

There

can

be

no

doubt,

however,

that

the

League

suffered

from

a

serious

defect

in

its

publicity

methods;

and

Carl

J.

Hambro

correctly,

even

if

somewhat

se-

verely,

writes

that

&dquo;the

Information

Sec-

tion

of

the

League

had

succeeded

in

creat-

ing

the

impression

that

the

League

was

dull

and

drab

and

deadening.&dquo;

It

is

good

to

be

reminded

that

in

addition

to

the

hard

thinking

and

deep

devotion

required

from

the

experts

in

the

many

fields

of

interna-

tional

effort,

considerable

attention

must

be

given

to

making

more

vivid

and

dra-

matic

the

highly

significant

work

of

build-

ing

a

new

world,

and

that

symbols

as

well

must

be

enlisted

in

the

cause.

The

present

volume

can

be

heartily

recommended

as

one

of

the

many

fine

works

now

appearing

which

provide

material

of

an

informative

and

challenging

nature

and

which

can

pro-

vide the

basis

of

more

popular

articles

and

discussions

calculated

to

influence

the

great

body

of

public

opinion

on

the

judgment

of

which,

in

the

last

resort,

the

free

societies

now

fighting

for

survival

will

or

will

not

win

the

peace.

LINDEN

A.

MANDER

University

of

Washington,

Seattle

TATE,

MERZE.

The

Disarmament

Illusion:

The

Movement

for

a

Limitation

of

Armaments

to

1907.

Pp.

xiv,

398.

New

York:

The

Macmillan

Co.,

1942.

$4.00.

In

this

exhaustive

study

by

Dr.

Tate,

the

Bureau

of

International

Research

of

Har-

vard

University

and

Radcliffe

College

has

sponsored

an

impressive

contribution

to

knowledge

of

the

problems

of

world

peace.

The

very

title

suggests

a

scientific

rather

than

an

emotional

appeal.

It

is

a

portrayal

of

past

failures,

not

a

pattern

for

things

to

come.

The

author

is

invariably

de-

tached.

An

enormous

patience

assembles

the

data,

but

judgment

is

suspended.

Ger-

many

assumed

responsibility

for

the

failure

of

both

Hague

conferences,

but

this

is

at-

tributed

to

her

ineptitude

in

diplomacy

rather

than

to

any

malignity

of

purpose

peculiar

to

Germans.

One

is

reminded

of

von

Bethmann-Hollweg’s

ill-starred

pro-

nouncement

in

1914

that

treaties

are

but

scraps

of

paper.

That

is

what

history

has

proved

them

to

be,

but

the

world

was

horror-stricken

when

a

first

minister

of

state

called

them

such.

He

violated

the

conventions.

The

picture

which

Dr.

Tate

presents

of

conscientious

and

even

great

personalities

torn

between

a

desire

for

human

progress

and

responsibility

to

their

respective

na-

tions

is

an

indictment

of

the

savagery

of

anarchic

nationalism-not

an

indictment

of

the

personalities

in

question

or

of

their

respective

nations.

If

Germany

can

be

construed

as

villain,

the

United

States

does

not

emerge

as

saint.

Theodore

Roosevelt

and

his

advisers

did

not

propose

to

limit

navies

just

when

sea

power

was

becoming

the

key

to

the

Far

East.

A

searching

analysis

is

devoted

to

the

motives

of

Czar

Nicholas

II

in

calling

the

Hague

Conference

of

1899

and

to

the

re-

action

of

statesmen

and

publicists

to

his

proposal.

A

cynical

consternation

pre-

dominated,

coupled

with

hypocritical

defer-

ence

to

the

&dquo;noble&dquo;

motives

of

so

exalted

a

personage..

The

world

was

unready

for

arms

limitation.

Nor

is

the

world

con-

demned.

Public

opinion

was

inadequately

organized.

Such

opinion

as

existed

is

here

summarized

in

almost

tedious

detail.

There

are

pages,

in

fact,

suggestive

of

the

Old

Testament

genealogies

in

their

rescue

from

oblivion

of

persons

whose

very

names

would

perish

but

for

the

loving

labor

of

an

indefatigable

research

which

assembles

the

contribution

made

by

each

to

the

&dquo;Illu-

sion.&dquo;

&dquo;

A

few

personalities

may

be

singled

out

for

particular

attention.

Thus

the

Third

Marquess

of

Salisbury,

the

Baroness

Bertha

Von

Suttner,

not

to

mention

Czar

Nicholas

II,

represent

humane

figures

more

con-

scious

than

most

of

impending

ruin

unless

the

self-destroying

rivalries

of

Western

civi-

lization

could

be

curbed.

Their

opposites,

but

not

condemned

on

that

account,

are

represented

by

Alfred

Thayer

Mahan

for

the

United

States,

and

the

Baron

Karl

Von

Stengel

for

Germany,

who

is

quoted

for

his

ridicule

of

utopian

projects.

The

essence

of

the

conflict

between

prog-

ress

and

destruction

lay

in

nationalism-in

a

refusal

to

guarantee

indefinitely

the

status

quo

favorable

to

some,

unfavorable

to

others,

which

would

violate

the

deepest

currents

of

human

nature

as

nationally

or-

ganized.

Its

solution

awaits

a

world

re-

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