CHAPTER XXIV.
EDUCATION AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM—HISTORIC.
EUROPE.
The Standing Army a Legacy of Evil from the Middle Ages. — It is the Controlling Feature of the European Situation. — Its Collateral Evils: Wars and Debts. — The Debts of Europe Represent a Series of Colossal Crimes against the People; with the Armies and Navies they Absorb the Bulk of the Annual Revenue. — The People Fleeing from them. — They Threaten Bankruptcy; they Prevent Education. — Germany, the best-educated Nation in Europe, losing most by Emigration. — Her People will not Endure the Standing Army. — The Folly of the European International Policy of Hate. — It is Possible for Europe to Restore to Productive Employments 3,000,000 of men, to place at the Disposal of her Educators $700,000,000, instead of $70,000,000 per annum, and to pay her National Debts in Fifty-four Years, simply by the Disbandment of her Armies and Navies. — The Armament of Europe Stands in the Way of Universal Education and of Universal Industrial Prosperity. — Standing Armies the Last Analysis of Selfishness; they are Coeval with the Revival during the Middle Ages of the Greco-Roman Subjective Methods of Education. — They must go out when the New Education comes in.
The mediæval period conferred upon man two great blessings—a new continent and the art of printing. It also left a legacy of evil. With the partition of Europe into great States the modern age began, and it began with this inheritance of evil from the Middle Ages—the standing army.
The feudal lords wrecked their estates and sacrificed their lives during the Crusades, and a middle class arose and united with the kings in the government of the State. But this alliance was of short duration; it soon gave way to an alliance which proved to be enduring—an alliance between the aristocracy and the kings.
By the ruin of feudalism thousands of serfs were set free. Trained to arms, it was easy to make soldiers of them. They were accordingly converted into mercenary troops—mustered into the service of the new alliance as guards of the modern State. Thus the standing armies of the “great powers” originated. This legacy of evil has so increased in magnitude that it is, to-day, the dominant feature of European public economy, and the portentous fact of the social problem.
The standing armies of Europe number two million five hundred thousand men, and their naval auxiliaries consist of three thousand vessels, thirty thousand guns, and two hundred thousand men. This is the mammoth evil bequeathed to Europe by the Middle Ages, and out of it many collateral evils have sprung, as wars, debts, and exorbitant tax levies.[E25]
Thirty years ago the national debts of the governments of Europe had risen to $9,000,000,000. Since that time they have almost trebled! The cause of this vast increase is easy to find. It consists chiefly of four great wars, namely, the Crimean war of 1854-56, the Franco-Sardinian war against Austria in 1859, the German-Italian war of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-72. These wars were waged to maintain what is termed the balance of power; they involved no principle affecting the rights of man. Whatever their issue, no gain could hence accrue to the people of Europe. And this is the nature of most of the wars in which the standing armies of Europe have been employed since their organization. But the European budget shows that they are the overshadowing feature of the European governmental systems.
The annual revenue of the States of Europe is about $1,725,000,000. Of this sum $700,000,000 is devoted to the support of the standing armies and navies, and as much more is required to meet the interest charge on the debts created in the prosecution of wars waged to maintain the balance of power! Thus, of the aggregate of European revenue, the sum of $1,400,000,000 is devoted to the purely supposititious theory that the subjects of the great powers are inflamed with an intense desire to cut one another’s throats, while the small sum of $325,000,000 is left for the support of the civil service, comprising all the strictly legitimate objects of government, and including education!
The national debts of Europe represent a series of colossal crimes against the people. They were incurred in the prosecution of unnecessary wars, and for the support of unnecessary standing armies. With relation to these debts the people are divided into two classes—one class owns them and the other class pays interest on them. This relationship comprehends future generations in perpetuity. Every child born in Europe inherits either an estate in these debts or an obligation to contribute towards the payment of the interest upon them. Thus the fruits of a great crime have been transmuted into a vested right in one class of people, and into a vested wrong in another class.[85]
[85] “For instance, I have seven thousand pounds in what we call the Funds or Founded things; but I am not comfortable about the founding of them. All that I can see of them is a square bit of paper, with some ugly printing on it, and all that I know of them is that this bit of paper gives me the right to tax you every year, and make you pay me two hundred pounds out of your wages; which is very pleasant for me; but how long will you be pleased to do so? Suppose it should occur to you, any summer’s day, that you had better not? Where would my seven thousand pounds be? In fact, where are they now? We call ourselves a rich people; but you see this seven thousand pounds of mine has no real existence—it only means that you, the workers, are poorer by two hundred pounds a year than you would be if I hadn’t got it. And this is surely a very odd kind of money for a country to boast of.”—“Fors Clavigera,” Part I., p. 67. By John Ruskin, LL.D. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1880.