WAR
The historical records show that the manufacturers of
armaments have only too frequently succumbed to these
temptations.
One of the measures common to the programmes of all
the world's left-wing parties is the nationalization of the
arms industry. To a certain extent all states are already
in the armaments business. In England, for example, the
government arsenals produce about five-twelfths of the
nation's arms, private firms about seven-twelfths* Complete
nationalization would thus be merely the wider application
of a well-established principle.
Now the complete nationalization of the arms industry
would certainly achieve one good result: it would liberate
governments from the influence of socially irresponsible
capitalists, interested solely in making large profits. So far,
so good. But the trouble is that this particular reform does
not go far enough—goes, in fact, hardly anywhere at all.
Armaments are armaments, whoever manufactures them.
A plane from a government factory can kill as many
women and children as a plane from a factory owned by
a private capitalist. Furthermore, the fact that armaments
were being manufactured by the state would serve in some
measure to legalize and justify an intrinsically abominable
practice. The mass of unthinking public opinion would
come to feel that an officially sanctioned arms industry was
somehow respectable. Consequently the total abolition of
the whole evil business would become even more difficult
than it is at present. This difficulty would be enhanced
by the fact that a central executive having complete control
of the arms industry would be very reluctant to part with
such an effective instrument of tyranny. For an instrument
of tyranny is precisely what a nationalized armaments
industry potentially is. The state is more powerful than
any 'private employer, and the personnel of a completely
nationalized arms industry could easily be dragooned and
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