As imprisonment for debt has disappeared and as duelling is giving way to the suit at law, so war will be succeeded by courts of arbitration and tribunals for investigation.  All real progress toward peace is in line with the teachings of the Nazarene and this progress hastens the coming of governments that shall endure.

With the conclusion of the World War our nation confronts such an opportunity as never came to any other nation—­such an opportunity as never came to our nation before.  We were the only great nation that sought no selfish advantage and had no old scores to settle, no spirit of revenge to gratify.  Our contributions were made for the world’s benefit—­to end war and make self-government respected everywhere.  We entered the conflict at the time when we could render the maximum of service with a minimum of sacrifice.  At the peace conference we asked nothing for ourselves—­no territorial additions, no indemnities, no reimbursements—­just world peace, universal and perpetual.  That was to be our recompense.

It is not entirely the fault of other nations that they do not stand exactly in the same position that we do.  In many respects their situations are different from ours.  They have received from the past an inheritance of race and national hostility; they have their commercial ambitions; they have their military and naval groups with antiquated standards of honour, not to speak of those who, feeding on war contracts, feel that they have a vested interest in carnage.  Besides these hindrances to peace they lack several advantages which we enjoy over any other nation of importance, viz., more complete information in regard to other people, a more general sympathy with other nations and a greater moral obligation to them.  Our nation being made up of the best blood of the nations of Europe, we learn to know the people at home through the representatives who come here.  Because of our intimate connection with the foreign elements of our country our sympathy goes out to all lands; and because we have received from other nations as no other nation ever did, we are in duty bound to give as no other nation has given.

We have given the world a peace plan that provides for the investigation of all disputes before a resort to arms—­a plan that gives time for passions to subside and for reason to resume her sway.  We have substituted the maxim:  “Nothing is final between friends,” for the old-fashioned diplomacy based on threats and ultimatums.  We have turned from the blood-stained precedents of the past and invoked a spirit of brotherhood for the purpose of preventing wars.  These treaties contain a provision which, though seemingly very simple, is profoundly significant.  In former times treaties ran for a certain number of years and then lapsed unless renewed.  The thirty treaties negotiated by our nation in 1913 and 1914 with three-quarters of the world, providing for investigation of all disputes before