CHAPTER XXV

CONCLUSION

In the survey of World Government there have reappeared
the same fundamental problems which were described at the
outset of this inquiry iato politics. There is the conflict between
the need for order and the desire of nations, as of individuals,
for the liberty to do as they please. If order is to be .established
without tyranny, there is need for the active goodwill of all those
who wish to live together in the community. There is the task
of making force subject to law, and of securing that law expresses
justice. There are the economic, historical and racial facts, in the
light of which the political forms must be interpreted.

The State exists through the individual's surrender of a
nominal liberty to do as he pleases; but the individual discovers
that by cooperation with his fellows he can secure a great
extension of his real liberty. So the State can be organised to
provide the individual with opportunities for useful and interesting
activity. Thus encouraged, human energies rush out for the
increase of wealth and knowledge. Within a particular State,
such as Britain, some progress of this nature has been achieved;
but in the world as a whole mankind is still engaged in the old
struggle against disorder, injustice and the waste of human
faculties. There is the same need to exchange the liberty to make
war for the liberty to live well and in peace; and the penalty for
failure is made more terrible by man's own inventions.

The picture is terrible enough, illuminated as it is by the
flames of burning cities and villages in three continents. But it need
not terrify mankind into inaction. The fashioning of Govern-
ment demonstrates not only the follies, but the strength, wisdom

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