This argument, when formulated, may be held to be that, since there has been an immense increase in the European population during recent times, and since democracy attempts to establish a higher standard of comfort for all the members of that teeming host, this twofold process must inevitably and mechanically result in a sharp accentuation of the struggle for existence among the modern democracies, and therefore in war.
But, on a strict examination, this proposition, like the others, will appear doubtful.
During our own age the European world has been busy providing for itself many safety valves and overflow pipes against the dangerous social forces just described. If we look at Russia there has been, no doubt, an enormous expansion recently in her population, accompanied by marked unrest and distress. But this is being met in three ways. The Russian agriculturists have been marching by millions into the regions, hitherto pastoral, which extend north of the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and the Caspian, and still farther east. Also, farther north they have been penetrating into Central Asia on a scale of immigration unknown till now. Secondly, within Russia itself a strong conviction is spreading that as yet the soil has only been scratched, that intensive culture must supersede the primitive methods of the nomad, and that the salvation of the peasantry must be sought, not in new territories but in the soil underfoot. Thirdly, industrialism, with all
