In that matter, of the political education of the masses, America, in her United States and Canada, yields a fine example.  Though not certainly perfect, her general standard of education and alertness is infinitely superior to that of the peoples of the Old World.  And some writers contend that it is just in that—­in her general level and not in her freaks of genius—­that America’s claim lies to distinction among the nations of the earth.  If you consider the peoples of the Old World, whether in England, Scotland, or Ireland, in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, or farther East and farther South over the earth, you will find the great masses, on the land or in the workshops, still sunk in vast ignorance, apathy, and irresponsibility.  Only here and there among those I have mentioned, and notably among the smaller peoples of Western Europe, like Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, are the masses beginning to stir, as it were, towards the daylight.  It can only be with the final opening of their eyes and awakening from slumber that the rule of the classes will be at an end.  But that awakening—­with the enormous spread of literature and locomotion and intercommunication of all kinds over the modern world, cannot now, one would say, be long delayed.

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Meanwhile, and until that era arrives, we can only insist (at any rate in our own country) on a different kind of foreign policy from what we have had—­a policy open and strong, not founded on Spread-Eagleism, and decidedly not founded on commercialism and the interests of the trading classes (as the Empire League seem to desire), but directed towards the real welfare of the masses in our own and other lands.  If our rulers and representatives really seek peace, here is the obvious way to ensue and secure it—­namely, by making political friends of those in all countries who desire peace and are already stretching hands of amity to each other.  What simpler and more obvious way can there be?  “We hail our working-class comrades of every land,” says the Manifesto of the Independent Labour Party.  “Across the roar of guns we send greeting to the German Socialists.  They have laboured unceasingly to promote good relations with Britain, as we with Germany.  They are no enemies of ours, but faithful friends.  In forcing this appalling crime upon the nations, it is the rulers, the diplomats, the militarists, who have sealed their doom.  In tears and blood and bitterness the greater Democracy will be born.  With steadfast faith we greet the future; our cause is holy and imperishable, and the labour of our hands has not been in vain.”