THE WAR AND A STUDY IN CONSTRUCTIVE POLITICS BY WILLIAM CECIL DAMPIER-WHETHAM, F.R.S. AUTHOR OF "" THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE"; AND OTHER WORKS LONDON 1917 reclassed 2D 265.13. PREFACE THE success of the British Empire in turning its energy from peace to war, and the power of adaptation shown by its social and political structure, prove the essential soundness of the fabric of the nation. Nevertheless, the war has led to a widespread recognition that the economic theory of laissez-faire, on which for a century the country has relied, is a dangerous guide in the present condition of the world. The urgent need of better national organisation is now clear to most people. In fact, organisation has been forced on us in continually increasing degree by the war itself. Yet some war-measures are unsuited to peace, and in other directions much more than hitherto has been accomplished remains to be done. Many committees and individuals have pronounced on isolated questions, and some discussion has followed. But it seemed worth while to give in a collected form a critical account of the more important of these inquiries, and, in the light so obtained, to examine the subject of national organisation from a single point of view. When political and economic questions are under consideration, it is necessary to allow for personal 324396 |