would be in using submarines to catch cod fish, so that there
might be practise in building and managing such crafts for
peaceful pursuits. There is, however, psychological
justification for aiming to direct the emotions so that their
discharge is not destructive, but of benefit to the nation and
to the world. Such would be the development of our national
resources, the construction of railways, roads, waterworks and
the like; social and political reforms; progress in the care of
public health, in education and in scientific research. It is
proposed that the next congress should spend half a billion
dollars on the army and navy. It is possible that on a
plebiscite vote, exactly under existing conditions, a majority
would vote to make the department of war a department of public
works, military defence being only one of its functions, and to
spend the sum proposed on public works useful in case of war,
but not an incitement to war.

NATIONAL WEALTH AND PUBLIC INDEBTEDNESS

WHILE the lives and the wealth of the European nations are
being sacrificed on a scale hitherto unparalleled, it is well
in the interests of those nations, as well as of our own, that
we conserve the lives and wealth of our own people. The
greatest wealth of a nation is its children, its productive
workers, its scientific men and other leaders, its accumulated
knowledge and social traditions. These are immeasurable, but
the Bureau of the Census has recently prepared a report on the
material wealth and indebtedness, according to which it is
estimated that the total value of all classes of property in
the United States, exclusive of Alaska and the insular