had, as we shall presently note, in other ways- in all sorts of
generous rivalries and useful as well as exciting endeavors that are
open to the modern man.

(2) War has necessitated discipline, organization, courage, self-
sacrifice, and has thus been a great stimulus to virtues which to some
extent have carried over into other fields. It has kept men from
sinking into inertia or mere pleasure seeking, fostered energy and
hardihood, quieted civil strife, taught the necessity of union and
justice at home. The patriotism awakened by struggle against a common
enemy has often persisted when the conflict was over, given birth to
art and history, and many an act of devotion to the State.
But national solidarity and a regime of justice within the State are
now our stable possession, while the hardier and heroic virtues can
be awakened in other and less disastrous ways. War has ceased to have
its former usefulness as a spur to personal and social morality.

(3) Wars of self-defense have often been necessary, to preserve goods
that would have been lost by conquest; as when the Greeks at Marathon
repelled the barbaric hordes of Asia, or when Charles Martel and the
Franks checked the advance of the Saracens at Tours. Offensive wars,
even, may have been necessary to wipe out evils, such as slavery or
the oppression of neighboring peoples. But in modern times the moral
justification of war on such grounds has usually been a flimsy pretext;
and certainly the occasion for legitimate warfare is becoming steadily
rarer. Nearly always the good aimed at could have been attained without
the evils of war. If the American colonies had had a little more
patience, they could have won the liberty they craved without war and
separation from the mother country-as Canada and Australia have done.
If the United States had had a little more patience and tact and