The discussion whether or not a war is profitable often takes the
superficial form of a comparison between the indemnity received and the
money expended on the war. It is pointed out, for example, that in
1895 Japan received a larger sum from China than {261} had been spent
on the war, while on the other hand it is emphasised that thereafter
the military expenditures of Japan increased so rapidly that much more
than this profit was spent. But the indemnity was the smallest part of
Japan's gain and the military expenditures were made necessary, not by
the Chinese War nor by the payment of the indemnity but by a concrete
military policy, which was largely based on concrete economic needs.
Either an expansion into Asia was necessary and in the end possible for
Japan or it was not; if it was, the expenditure of a few hundred
million dollars on the wars against China, Russia and Germany were a
paying investment, irrespective of indemnities; if it was not the wars
would have been a bad investment even had they shown a clear balance on
the books.

The problem is not whether every war is advantageous to the victor but
whether any war is of benefit. It is highly improbable that the war of
1914 will in the end pay most if any of the combatants, but if Germany
by a victory as easy as that of 1870 could have secured from France an
indemnity of four or five billion dollars and the cession of Northern
Africa, it would surely have paid. A war between Germany and Holland,
if the other powers held off, would be equally profitable to the
stronger power. If a coalition of nations could defeat and blockade
Great Britain, they could easily recoup themselves for any expenditures
involved. It is true that they could not physically remove British
railways and mines, but they could confiscate the navy, the merchant
marine, a part of the foreign and colonial investments and a certain
part of the profits of business within the kingdom. To assert that a
nation can never gain at war is merely to state that nations never have
conflicting interests, whereas in truth some nations are cramped
economically by other nations, {262} and a large part of the wealth and
income of most nations can be diverted by means of physical compulsion.

The problem of internationalism is therefore not solely to teach the
nation its own interest but so to change the conditions that the
nation's interest in war will disappear. The temptation to war can be
overcom