Around this point much of the discussion at the conclusion of this present war will range.  If it is to be a real peace and not a truce an attempt will have to be made to give to each party security from the other, and the question will then arise whether America will come into that combination or not.  I have already indicated that I think she should not come in, certainly I do not think she will come in, with the offer of military aid.  But if she stays out of it altogether she will have withdrawn from this world congress that must sit at the end of the war a mediating influence which may go far to render it nugatory.

And when, after it may be somewhat weary preliminaries, an international council of conciliation is established to frame the general basis of the new alliance between the civilized powers for mutual protection along the lines indicated, America, if she is to play her part in securing the peace of the world, must be ready to throw at least her moral and economic weight into the common stock, the common moral and economic forces which will act against the common enemy, whoever he may happen to be.

That does not involve taking sides, as I showed in my last article.  The policeman does not decide which of two quarrelers is right; he merely decides that the stronger shall not use his power against the weaker.  He goes to the aid of the weaker, and then later the community deals with the one who is the real aggressor.  One may admit, if you will, that at present there is no international law, and that it may not be possible to create one.  But we can at least exact that there shall be an inquiry, a stay; and more often than not that alone would suffice to solve the difficulty without the application of definite law.

It is just up to that point that the United States should at this stage be ready to commit herself in the general council of conciliation, namely, to say this:  “We shall throw our weight against any power that refuses to give civilization an opportunity at least of examining and finding out what the facts of the dispute are.  After due examination we may reserve the right to withdraw from any further interference between such power and its antagonist.  But, at least, we pledge ourselves to secure that by throwing the weight of such non-military influence as we may have on to the side of the weaker.”  That is the point at which a new society of nations would begin, as it is the point at which a society of individuals has begun.  And it is for the purpose of giving effect to her undertaking in that one regard that America should become the centre of a definite organization of that world State which has already cut athwart all frontiers and traversed all seas.