War & Peace Quote by Elihu Root

Peace, Root is implying, can’t be sold like a brief. His sentence has the dry chill of a seasoned lawyer watching idealists try to litigate against instinct. “Peace propaganda” here isn’t praise; it’s a skeptical label for campaigns that treat war as a misunderstanding that can be reasoned away with pamphlets, speeches, and uplift. Root’s target is the comforting liberal assumption that if you just educate the public and cultivate the right sentiments, policy will follow.

The phrase “springs of human action” does the heavy lifting. It suggests motive forces beneath stated beliefs: fear, honor, interest, resentment, profit, national pride, the adrenaline of crisis, the bureaucratic momentum of militaries and alliances. Root is saying these engines don’t respond to argument alone, because argument works at the level of doctrine while war often begins at the level of incentives and structures. He’s not dismissing peace; he’s dismissing the idea that moral suasion is an adequate technology for achieving it.

Context sharpens the edge. Root served at the center of American statecraft (Secretary of War, Secretary of State) in an era when international law and arbitration were gaining prestige, then collided with the catastrophe of World War I. From that vantage, “creating a feeling favorable to peace in general” sounds like a critique of abstract pacifism: pro-peace as a mood, anti-war as a plan. The subtext is a pragmatic challenge to reformers: if you want to change conduct, don’t just preach. Rewire the conditions that make violence rational, rewarding, or inevitable.