When this is achieved there will be, for the first time in the history of the world, the dawn of the longed-for era of universal and relatively permanent peace for mankind.

It is a far-off dream, is it not?  Let us admit it frankly, and it seems further off than it did four years ago; for the approximations to it, achieved through international law, we have seen go down in a blind welter, through the invention of new instruments of destruction and the willful perpetration of illegal and immoral atrocities in this horrible War.

Nevertheless, it is not so far off as in ourdarker moments we fear.  If this world War ends justly; which means if it ends so that the people dwelling on any territory are affiliated with the government to which they naturally belong and with which they wish to be affiliated, the dream will be brought appreciably nearer.  If the War ends unjustly, which means if it ends with the gratification of the ambitions of aggressive tyranny, the dream will be put remotely far off.  If a peace is patched up meantime, with no solution, it will mean Europe sleeping on its arms, and the breaking out of the war with multiplied devastation within twenty years.  That is why these blithely undertaken peace missions and other efforts at peace without victory, even when not cloaks for pro-German movements, are such preposterous absurdities or else play directly into the hands of tyranny.

At best, however, the dream is a long way ahead.  Men dislike to give up power, nations equally.  It will take a long process of international moral education to induce the nations to renounce their arbitrary powers, their right to adjust all their own quarrels, and lead them to enter voluntarily a federation under a world court of Justice.  This, nevertheless, is the hope of the world, toward which we should work with all our might.

VII

AMERICA’S DUTY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Since the world solution is, at best, so remote, our question is:  what are we to do meantime?  Our entrance into the War partially answers the question.  We have before us the immediate task of aiding in overthrowing autocracy and tyranny and of defending our liberties and those of the nations that stand for democracy.  This is the first duty, but not the only one.

More definitely than any other nation we have thrown down to the world the challenge of democracy.  We have said, “Away with kings, we will have no more of them!  Away with castes and ruling classes, we will have no more of them!” As a matter of fact, democracies have no rulers—­the word survives from an older order of society—­they have guides, leaders and representatives.  If you wish to use the word, in a democracy every man is the ruler—­and every woman too, we hope, before long.  To this ideal we are committed and it carries certain obligations; for every right carries a duty, and every duty, a right.  Often the best way to get a privilege is by assuming a responsibility.  That is a truth it would be well for the leaders of the feminist and labor movements to recognize.  The obligations carried by the challenge of our democracy are clear.