Page:The heart of Europe; an address delivered by Charles Pergler in Washington, December 11, 1916, at a conference of oppressed or dependent nationalities (IA heartofeuropeadd00pergrich).pdf/42

alities is also one of extension of democracy. Democracy in a nation will never be realized until all individuals within the nation are afforded an equality of opportunity; democracy among nations will never be realized until all nations, be they large or small, are afforded an equal opportunity to develop and grow legitimately. The mere existence of Austria has become a denial of the right of numerous nations not only to develop, but to exist. These nations will not submit to the lot of slaves, and their resistance will be a constant danger signal to everybody that all is not well with the world, that a new catastrophe may result any moment because of their resistance to oppression; and this necessarily would again involve the whole world. So we must come to the conclusion that even America is vitally interested in the Austrian, and, more specifically, the Bohemian problem. Is it too much to hope that American statesmanship will rise high enough to demand a solution of such questions, now agitating the world, and that it will insist upon such definite solution at the future peace conference? A school of thought has arisen in this country, small as yet to be sure, which seems to think that the only practical statesmanship is to have in mind national interests in the narrowest sense of the term. Those entertaining such a narrow viewpoint should be reminded of a passage in Washington’s Farewell Address, a passage seldom, if ever, thought of: “It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted