out by an executive police, not of one or two peoples, but selected from all. We need not an entente between two or three governments, and alliances on the part of two others, but a union of all in a compact Federation, by which any violation of the laws of the Federation shall be treated as a ground of action of all against that one.
It is not too much for pacificists to say that we are moving in that path with our faces set to that goal. The Hague Conference has not achieved all we hoped; but it has advanced us along our journey. Mr. Bryan has arranged thirty-five treaties to make war impossible quite recently, Great Britain having just signed one. The International Peace Union of the United States has met and perfected its proposals for the maintenance of peace after the war; they include complete disarmament, an International Tribunal, and an International Police. That is very significant; for America leads the world, and must lead it, in peace. It is free from the dynastic questions that trouble Europe. It is also free from the tyranny of the past, and not so entangled in such inhuman dogmas as the Balance of Power and the maintenance of thrones.
It is a serious task; the most serious that can engage the thoughts of men. The solution of the problem of foreign or international relations has been attempted again and again, and yet it remains unsolved. Kings and emperors have attacked it and drifted into war. Republics have done the same. Specialists have given it their attention, and yet the work waits to be done. But we need not fear. War did not reach its present diabolical effectiveness at a bound. Hundreds of years have been spent in making this tragic machine what it is to-day. The brains of generations have directed their energies to it. Surely it ought not to be thought a strange thing, considering what men are, and what difficulties groups of men find in living together, that it should take the experts and masters a long time to solve the problem of international relationships.
In order to accomplish our task for Europe, we must exercise the utmost solicitude to keep our soul free from the stain of self-seeking. Victors must secure enough detachment to avoid using the settlement for their exclusive advantage. That final arbiter, public opinion, must be kept within hearing, and the feelings of neutral peoples and defeated belligerents must not be forgotten. The Great Peace ought to have the backing of all the communities of Europe. As far as may be, no one
