Editorial February 15, 1900 Issue

"Cause of the War."

Editor

Under the above healing Count Tolstoi discourses upon the war in South Africa. The newspapers report him as saying, among other things, that he cannot agree with those who attribute the cause of this war to the behavior of this or that political leader. "The real causes," he says, "are perfectly evident in regard to the Transvaal war, as well as to all the wars which have lately taken place." He then divides these causes into three:—

1. Unequal distribution of property; 2. The existence of the military class, or a class educated to the profession of war; and 3. Erroneous religious teaching.

He concludes that it is not only useless, but harmful to attribute the causes of the war to the Chamberlains and Wilhelms, and such like, thus hiding from one's self the true causes, which lie nearer and in which we are ourselves participating. He asserts that all history is a series of actions on the part of politicians exactly similar to those which preceded the Transvaal war.

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