No man for a single day of his life observes all the Ten Commandments, yet you can always secure a majority for the support of the Ten Commandments, for the simple reason that while there are a great many who would like to rob, all are in favor of being protected against the robber.  While there are a great many who would like on occasion to kill, all are in favor of being protected against being killed.  The prohibition of this act secures universal support embracing “all of the people all of the time”; the positive impulse to it is isolated and occasional—­with some individuals perhaps all the time, but with all individuals only some of the time, if ever.

When you come to the nations, there is less disproportion between the strength of the unit and the society.  Hence nations have been slower than individuals in realizing their common interest.  Each has placed greater reliance on its own strength for its protection.  Yet the principle remains the same.  There may be nations which desire for their own interest to go to war, but they all want to protect themselves against being beaten.  You have there an absolutely common interest.  The other interest, the desire to beat, is not so universal; in fact, if any value can be given whatever to the statement of the respective statesmen, such an interest is non-existent.

There is not a single statesman in Christendom today who would admit for a moment that it is his desire to wage war on a neighboring nation for the purpose of conquering it.  All this warfare is, each party to it declares, merely a means of protecting itself against the aggression of neighbors.  Whatever insincerity there may be in these declarations we can at least admit this much, that the desire to be safe is more widespread than the desire to conquer, for the desire to be safe is universal.

We ought to be able, therefore, to achieve, on the part of the majority, action to that end.  And on this same principle there can be no doubt that the nations as a whole would give their support to any plan which would help to secure them from being attacked.  It is time for the society of nations to take this first step toward the creation of a real community; to agree, that is, that the influence of the whole shall be thrown against the one recalcitrant member.

The immensely increased contact between nations which has set up a greater independence (in the way hinted at in my last article) has given weight to the interest in security and taken from the interest in aggression.  The tendency to aggression is often a blind impulse due to the momentum of old ideas which have not yet had time to be discredited and disintegrated by criticism.  And of organization for the really common interest—­that of security against aggression—­there has, in fact, been none.  If there is one thing certain it is that in Europe last July the people did not want war; they tolerated it, passively dragged by the momentum of old forces which they could not even formulate.  The really general desire has never been organized; any means of giving effect to a common will—­such as is given it in society within the frontiers—­has never so far been devised.