First, a change of outlook. We must give up, in all nations, this
habit of dwelling on the unique and peculiar wickedness of the enemy.
We must recognize that behind the acts that led up to the immediate
outbreak of war, behind the crimes and atrocities to which the war has
led, as wars always have led, and always will lead—behind all that
lies a great complex of feeling, prejudice, tradition, false theory, in
which all nations and all individuals of all nations are involved. Most
men believe, feel, or passively accept that power and wealth are the
objects States ought to pursue; that in pursuing these objects they are
bound by no code of right in their relations to one another; that law
between them is, and must be, as fragile as a cobweb stretched before
the mouth of a cannon; that force is the only rule and the only
determinant of their differences, and that the only real question is
when and how the appeal to force may most advantageously be made. This
philosophy has been expressed with peculiar frankness and brutality by
Germans. But most honest and candid men, I believe, will agree that
that is the way they, too, have been accustomed to think of
international affairs. And if illustration were wanted, let them
remember the kind of triumphant satisfaction with which the failure of
the Hague conferences to achieve any radical results was generally
greeted, and the contemptuous and almost abhorring pity meted out to
the people called “pacifists.” Well, the war has come! We see now, not
only guess, what it means. If that experience has not made a deep
impression on every man and woman, if something like a conversion is
not being generally operated, then, indeed, nothing can save mankind
from the hell of their own passions and imbecilities.
But if otherwise, if that change is going on, then the way to
deliverance is neither difficult nor obscure. It does not lie in the
direction of crushing anybody. It lies in the taking of certain
determinations, and the embodying of them in certain institutions.
First, the nations must submit to law and to right in the settlement
of their disputes.
Secondly, they must reserve force for the coercion of the
law-breaker; and that implies that they should construct rules to
determine who the law-breaker is. Let him be defined as the one who
appeals to force, instead of appealing to law and right by machinery
duly provided for that purpose, and the aggressor is immediately under
the ban of the civilized world, and met by an overwhelming force to
coerce him into order. In constructing machinery of this kind there is
no intellectual difficulty greater than that which has confronted every
attempt everywhere to substitute order for force. The difficulty is
moral, and lies in the habits, passions, and wills of men. But it
should not be concluded that, if such a moral change could be operated,
there would be no need for the machinery. It would be as reasonable to
say that Governments, law-courts, and police were superfluous, since,
if men were good, they would not require them, and if they are bad they
will not tolerate them. Whatever new need, desire, and conviction comes
up in mankind, needs embodiment in forms before it can become
operative. And, as the separate colonies of America could not
effectively unite until they had formed a Constitution, so will the
States of Europe and the world be unable to maintain the peace, even
though all of them should wish to maintain it, unless they will
construct some kind of machinery for settling their disputes and
organizing their common purposes, and will back that machinery by
force. If they will do that they may construct a real and effective
counterpoise to aggression from any Power in the future. If they will
not do it, their precautions against any one Power will be idle, for it
will be from some other Power that the danger will come. I put it to
the reader at the end of this study, which I have made with all the
candour and all the honesty at my disposal, and which I believe to
represent essentially the truth, whether or no he agrees that the
European anarchy is the real cause of European wars, and if he does,
whether he is ready for his part to support a serious effort to end it.