The great wars of the future will be fought not so much for interests in Europe as for interests in Asia and Africa; not so much for possessions in Europe which, as Mr. Norman Angell has shown, will not benefit any Power, as for Imperial and territorial expansion outside Europe. New markets, which, in Western vocabulary, have come to mean, possessions or spheres of influence, must be found for the ever-increasing manufactures of Europe. "As machine industry has been developed in different lands, producers have become ambitious of obtaining access not only to home but to foreign markets. Nations that wished to secure exclusive markets for their goods have engaged in a scramble for territory in Africa and for spheres of influence in the Far East."* While labour-saving machinery has by furthering an inordinate expansion of industries furnished the prime motive for war, the improved arms of long range and precision, the explosives, the submarines and the aeroplanes have made war much more costly and much more destructive than ever before. Might has always been right in this world, but these inventions, which are encouraged and applauded in the Western world, have made might much mightier and much more disastrous than of yore. In the present war the British Admiralty and war office contemplate an expenditure of £100,000,000. On the continent, the expenditure on the huge conscript and regular armies will be vastly greater. There would consequently be these applications are responsible, is the immense inequality in the distribution of wealth. The labour-saving machinery and appliances which have come so largely into vogue, have created capitalism, one of the greatest curses of the Western social state. No industry on a small scale and with a small capital can be remunerative at the present day. Concentration of capital is the essential/ condition of modern industrial expansion The success or failure of an industry depends chiefly upon the scale and quality of the machinery, and therefore, upon the amount of capital. The larger the capital, the more will it command high-class expensive machinery and appliances, and the larger, consequently, will be the margin of profit. Thus capital tends to be concentrated within a small section of the community. The number of millionaires and multi-millionaires has been growing but in direct ratio to the number of the wretched poor on the brink of starvation. This poverty, in the forcible words of the late Prof. Huxley, is "a condition in which food, warmth, and clothing. which are necessary for the mere maintenance the functions of the body in their normal state, cannot be obtained; in which women and children are forced to crowd into dens where decency is abolished, and the most ordinary conditions of healthful existence are impossible of attainment: in which the pleasures within reach are reduced to brutality and drunkenness: in which pains accumulate at compound interest in the shape of starvation, disease, stunted development and moral degradation: in which the prospect of even steady and honest industry is a life of unsucess ful battling with hunger rounded by a pauper's grave. ...I take it to be a mere plain truth, that large additions to the national debts, throughout industrial Europe there is not a single large higher taxation and, owing to the destruction and dislocation of industries, less ability to pay. One is reminded of Walpole's bitter saying: "They are ringing their bells now. Before long they will be wringing their hands." The more thoughtful among the Westerns are no doubt fully aware of the multifarious evils of militarism and peace propaganda has made considerable progress during the last two decades. But it has hitherto been practically infructuous, and will never bear any fruit until there is considerable abatement of the fatuous enthusiasm for the ceaseless practical applications of Natural Science. manufacturing city which is free from a large mass of people whose condition is exactly that described, and from a still greater mass, who, living just on the edge of the social swamp, are liable to be preci. pitated into it." * "About one-third of the total population of London" [says Dr. A. R. Wallace] "are living miserable poverty. stricken lives, the bulk of them with grinding, hopeless toil, only modified by the still worse conditions of want of employment with its accompaniments of harassing anxiety and partial starvation. And this is a true picture of what exists in all our great cities and to somewhat less degree of intensity over the whole country. There is surely very little indication here of any improvement in the condition of the people. Can it be maintained, has it ever been suggested-that in the early part of the century [the 19th century] more than one-third of the inhabitants of London did not have sufficient of the bare necessaries of life? In order that there may have been any considerable improve ment, in any degree cammensurate with the vast in "Evolution and Ethics, and other Essays," 215-216. ase of wealth, a full half of the entire population of "Everywhere," observes Henry George, "the in- Such is the picture of the present condion of the wars of the people in the West rawn by foremost Western writers, two them eminent scientific men skilled in eighing evidence. It appears to us very range, however, that none of them should ave seen the genetic relation which to us opears to subsist between this enormous crease in the mass of occidental misery id the phenomenal industrial expansion e to the wonderful progress of mechacal invention. One of the most mischievous effects of e innumerable inventions for gratifying ir senses has been to perpetually multiply ir imaginary wants, so that the goal of xury today becomes the starting point necessity to-morrow. The occidental generally takes a very vourable view of this excessive growth luxury. Lecky, for instance, says:— European Art of the present day is in any way superior to the Art of the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries; and in literature, a marked falling off has of late been noticeable. The expansion of mechanical invention has, no doubt, been highly favourable to the growth of the Physical Sciences. But, as we have seen above, it is the multitudinous economic applications of these sciences which have led to industrialism, and industrialism is responsible for the most serious evils of Western society. Immense increase in the elaboration and complexity of the conditions of life and ceaseless rise of the standard of comforts and luxuries are leading to perpetual and abnormal enhancement of the struggle for animal existence and to inordinate greed for wealth. The mechanical progress of the age has, in fact, rendered a simple, peaceful, happy, ethical life almost an impossibility in the West. Work under modern conditions with railways, telegraphs, telephone, and an infinity of other ingenious contrivances for condensing a large amount of work within a small amount of time, causes a wear and tear of the nervous system, the reparation of which necessitates a rather high standard of living; and an infinity of inventions for the gratification of our senses fosters and promotes it. As there is no limit to mechanical development, there is also no limit to the elevation of the standard of living; and ceaseless rise of this standard necessitates equally ceaseless struggle for the acquisition and accumulation of wealth, and all the evils which it connotes. Mechanical elaboration has also contributed to the intensity of this struggle by making concentration of capital an in "In the atmosphere of luxury that increased wealth oduces, refined tastes, perceptions of beauty, inteltual aspirations appear. Faculties that fore dormant are evoked, new directions are given dispensable condition of industrial develop were human energies, and, under the impulse of the sire for wealth, men arise to supply each new want at wealth has produced. Hence, for the most part, ise art and literature, and science, and all the ventions that have alleviated the sufferings or ltiplied the enjoyments of mankind."‡ There are some things which are good to a certain point, but become the ontrary beyond it. Growth of luxury preeminently one of such things. It as long since passed the limit of beneficence the West. It cannot be said that ment and commercial expansion, on which Western civilization rests. There has never been a community of any size which has emerged out of the primitive stage in which certain sections have not been ardent votaries of Mammon. But there never has been a civilized society in which Mammonism has been so universally prevalent as in the Western social state of the present day. The high-born as well as the lowborn, the educated and cultured as well as the uneducated and ignorant, all are engaged in the insane race for wealth; and in that motley group there may occasionally be recognised even ministers of religion who know or should know better than other people, that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. They cannot resist the influence of their environment. They can no more help being carried along by the tide of material progress than a piece of floating wood can help being drifted by the rushing stream. Continuous increase of luxury, besides the moral degeneration to which it it inevitably leads sooner or later, is attended by other evil consequences of a serious nature. It is undeniable that a large number of working-men are now better lodged, better fed, and better clothed, than they were half a century ago, but the gulf between their material condition and that of their of their masters is wider than ever. The relative poverty of the Western working man has increased where his actual poverty has not. Therein lies the secret of the growing discontent and restlessness even among the comparatively well-to-do labouring classes in Europe. The increase of luxury naturally begins at the top of the social scale When the desire for it reaches the bottom, as it must do sooner or later, there is heart-burning. With every addition to the wealth and luxury of the upper classes, unless there be a corresponding addition to the wealth and luxury of the lower classes, the latter become discontented, and clamour for a rise in their wages and for shorter working hours. After a period of loss and anxiety on the side of the masters, and of misery and barbarity on the side of the working men, the dispute between them is compromised, but never satisfactorily settled. As the standard of luxury is perpetually rising in the West, the struggle between capital and labour is perpetually recurring. I have so far confined myself to the evil effects of modern inventive fertility upon the Westerns. These effects upon the peoples outside the pale of Western civilization have, as a rule, been still more disastrous. The notion is prevalent in some circles in the West, that the Europeans are on a benevolent mission of progress and civilization in Africa, Oceania, and the East. The placid self-complacency with which such assertions are made would almost make one suspect a vein of irony in them. Never before in the history of man was the establishment of such world wide empires ever attempted as it has bett in recent times by the foremost Wester Powers. The extent and solidarity of the modern empires are due mainly to the annihilation of distance by steam an electricity. The ancient empires were not only of much smaller extent than those that are being built up at the present day. but the gulf between the conquerers and the conquered was not so wide as it is now. The conquerors generally had to settle in the lands they conquered. Com munication with their parent country way either altogether cut off, as in the case of the Aryans in India, Asia Minor, Greece etc., or was slow and intermittent, as in the case of the Greeks in Western Asia. Intermarriage between the conquerors and the conquered gradually took place. Alexander married a Persian princess, and encouraged his officers and soldiers to intermarry in Persia. The bigotry of the Maho medan conquerers of India gradually were off, and several of the Moghal emperors took Hindu wives. Thus there was a te dency towards the effacement of the line of demarcation between the conquerors am the conquered, and there sprang up sy pathetic relations between them. gradually came to have common interests, common language, and in a few cases, even common religion. The greater majo rity of the Hindus are the offspring of the Aryan invaders and the non-Aryan abori gines of India, as the English are the des cendants of the Saxon and Norman conquerors and the aboriginal population of England. They The object of the Western conqueror or exploiter at the present day is to take as much as possible from the conquered and the exploited countries and enjoy it at home. The facilities afforded by steam communication enable him to do this with ease and comfort. Even when colonies are established, the social barrier between the white and the non-white is studiously made impassable. There can never be any fasting and real sympathy between them. The moral results of such contact haver been disastrous alike to the exploiter and the exploited. As A. de Quatrefages observes: "Fundamentally the white, even when civilised. from the moral point of view, is scarcely better than the negro, and too often by his conduct in the midst of inferior races has justified the argument opposed The methods of the political or comercial missionary of the West are such s may well make the realisation of the ream of peace descending in a "drapery f calico" dreamt of by the Manchester oliticians as remote as ever. The railway nd steam navigation, by promoting by promoting iendly intercourse between the East and he West might have knit the bonds of uman brotherhood closer, but have tended nly to loosen them by facilitating the ransport of Western merchandise, Western roops, and Western engines of destruction, nd by rendering possible the government r control of tropical and subtropical egions from temperate Europe. Labouraving machinery could not have done the arm it has done if it had not been aided y cheap and quick means of transit. But for these Western manufactures ould not have been sent abroad on such n extensive scale as they are now, nor ould they have effected the extinction of The handmade manufactures of the Industrially backward peoples in the way hey have done, and the Western Powers vould not have been so eager to possess or control the markets of Asia and Africa s they are now. The weak and gnorant have always been more or less oppressed or exploited by the strong and he cunning, but never so extensively, so "The Human Species" pp. 461-462. fearlessly, and so systematically as at the present day. Thus we see that the industrial applications of modern Science instead of being the blessing which they are supposed to be by the Occidental, have proved rather a curse to humanity. Natural Science on its theoretical side has done most commendable work. It has extended the domain of Law in the kingdom of Nature. On its practical side also, in medicine and surgery, its effect has been to alleviate human misery. But the good thus conferred is confined to a comparatively insignificant fraction of humanity and is far outweighed by the evils arising from the endless industrial applications of physics and chemistry. It is said that Archimedes was halfashamed of those wonderful inventions of his which were the admiration of his age. If modern Science were more actuated by this ancient spirit, if it had not been so extensively employed for saving labour, for adding to comforts and luxuries, and for improving the engines of destruction; if it had not lent its aid so largely to material progress, and had kept more within the bounds of intellectual culture and ethical development, we would have almost unqualified praise for it. But its wonderful mechanical applications which form such a fertile theme for exuberant encomium in the West arouse in us only feelings of anxiety and apprehension for the stability of of Western Civilization. These applications which are considered by Western writers as its chief title to commendation are to our minds its chief title to condemnation. Γ FAMINE RELIEF BY THE SADHARAN BRAHMO SAMAJ HE Sadharan Brahmo Samaj first began relief operations in connection with famine in 1885. In that year Birbhum, a district of Bengal, was suffering from famine and the Samaj deputed the late Pandit Ramkumar Vidyaratna, one of its missionaries, to help the famine-stricken people. To quote from the annual report of the Samaj of that year for "raising subscriptions he had to travel in many districts and places such as Purnea, Monghyr, Jamalpur, Dinapur, Arrah, Dumraon, Murshidabad, and had actually to beg from door to door with a bag in his hand. The distribution of alms was no less a difficult task. In the hottest part of the year he had to visit the houses of the poor in the District of * Birbhum from early morning to a late hour in the evening. Without his indefatigable exertion, the famine operations of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj would not have proved so successful." And again, when Pandit Vidyaratna reached the place with his assistants he "had no quarters to live in and no food to eat. * * But Adwaita Churn Mitra, Station Master, Nalhati, made good arrangements for their accommodation and himself bore the fooding expenses of Pandit Vidyaratna till the month of Aswin." The operations began on the 18th Falgun and continued till 18th Kartik or lasted for a period of full eight months. The number on famine relief rose at one time to 3000 and on the last day sufficient food was distributed to 1300 people to last for three weeks. Cholera also broke out during a part of this period and homoeopathic medicines were distributed to the suffering people. A large stock of cloths, old and new, was also distributed among the sufferers. The total sum collected was Rs. 6434 and odd and out of this more than Rs. 5700 was spent. We next find small items of expenditure in connection with famine relief in Tipperah and Dacca in the annual reports of the Samaj for 1887, 1888 and 1893 amounting in all to a little over Rs. 200. The next considerable undertaking was, however, in 1894 in connection with the famine at Madaripur, a subdivision of Faridpur. Here also some of the workers of the Samaj relieved the famine-stricken people by giving them rice and cloths. The total amount on this occasion was Rs. 930 and odd. In 1897 famine broke out in some parts of Bengal and the United Provinces and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj spent about Rs. 650 in relief operations at Allahabad, Tangail (in Mymensing), Sontal Parganas and Giridih. During this year the Brahmo Samaj received the first contribution for famine relief from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association through its Secretary Rev. Copeland Bowie. In the widespread famine of the year 1900, the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj opened relief centres at Ajmere, Khandwa, Martaka, Chitore in Rajputana, and the Central Provinces. At Ajmere the daily attendance at the kitchen rose at one time to 900 and at Chitore to 600. More than 2000 blankets were distributed in Ajmere, Jodh pur and Palanpur. The amount spent on this occasion was nearly Rs. 10,000, Rs. 7000 of which was received from the British and Foreign Unitarian Association through the Brahmo Samaj Committee. The Samaj rendered help to the peop of Nalhati who suffered in the flood of1902 and spent about Rs. 300 in this connection. The earthquake in the Kangra Valley in 1905 rendered many people homeless and the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj spent Rs. 300 in relieving their distress through the Punjab Brahmo Samaj which carried o relief operations there. During this year the Samaj also sent Rs. 300 to the Madras Brahmo Samaj for relief to suffer. ers from famine. In 1906 again there was acute distress in some parts of Bengal and the Khasi Hills and the Samaj spent over Rs. 250 in relieving distress in Barisal, Khasi Hills. Faridpur, Tippera, Sylhet, Noakhali, Diamond Harbour, Majilpur, Banaripara. Gaila, Bagerhat, Barama, Gaurpara, and Bhushna Mahammadpur. In 1907, the Samaj sent Rs. 200 for relief work among the distressed peopl in the Malabar District of the Madras Presidency. In the severe famine which raged in the United Provinces and Bengal in 190 the Samaj spent nearly Rs. 3700 in relie operations at Allahabad, Bahraich and other places in the United Provinces and Radhanagar, Kalna and Kandi in Bengal. In 1909, famine broke out in certain districts of Behar and the executive Committee of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj sent a sum of Rs. 400 to Mrs. Kumudini Lal in aid of the relief work which she had commenced at Bishenpur in the Sitamarhi district. It remains only to mention the names of some of the gentlemen who helped to carry on these operations. In the reports of the severe famine in Rajputana mentioned above, the names of Babu Devendranath Bose, M.A., and Gopendranarayan Sinha are prominently mentioned and in that of the U. P. Babu Abinas Chandra Mazumdar of Lahore undertook the direction of affairs. In 1913 the flood in the river Damodar devastated a large number of villages in the districts of Burdwan, Howrah, Hughl Bankura and Midnapur. Just on the receipt of the news of the great disaster the executive committee of the Samaj placed a sum of Rs. 100 out of its famine fund in the hands of Mr. Krishna Kumar Mitra to |