Whether or not the United States should enter the League [Footnote:  The Council of the new League of Nations held its first meeting January 16, 1920, the United States, of course, not being represented.] we shall have to leave for the statesmen to decide; and whether or not the League will accomplish the desired ends, time alone can prove.  But two or three things may safely be said with regard to any really effective world government.

MIGHT DOES NOT MAKE RIGHT

When people live together in communities, each person has to sacrifice something of his personal freedom in order that all may enjoy the largest possible liberty.  The same is true of families in a neighborhood, of communities in a state, of the states in our nation.  There is no reason why it should not be true of nations which are neighbors to one another.  No nation has any more right to do as it pleases than a person or a family has, if what it pleases to do is unjust to its neighbors.  The only thing, however, that a nation can properly be asked to give up is being unjust to its neighbors.  We saw in Chapter iv that government and law increase rather than decrease the individual citizen’s freedom, and that it is only the “ill-mannered” who feel the restrictions of a wise government.  So, when we finally get a world government that is good, it will be one that will increase the freedom of all “good-mannered” nations, restricting only those that are “ill-mannered.”

WHAT “AMERICA FIRST” MEANS

Moreover, when we finally get a league of nations that will really secure friendly cooperation among the nations for their common interests, it will be brought about, not by sacrificing nationality and national patriotism, but by strengthening them.

What is required is not less loyalty to one’s nationality, but more sympathetic understanding of nationalities and national ideals different from one’s own, combined with a recognition of the fundamental interests ... which unite them to each other. [Footnote:  “Thoughts on Nationalism and Internationalism,” in History Teachers’ Magazine, June 1918, p. 334.]

The only way to be sure of a perfect neighborhood is first to see to it that the homes of the neighborhood are strong and whole some.  No person can really be loyal to his neighborhood who is not first of all loyal to his home.  Thoroughly efficient townships and counties and cities are essential to a thoroughly efficient state; and no citizen is loyal to his state who is not loyal to his township, county, and city.  The strength of our nation depends upon the strength of the states that compose it, and real national patriotism cannot well exist in the heart of a citizen who is disloyal to his state.  The first essential step toward an effective world government is to see that our national government is efficient and at the same time just. The first and best service that a citizen can perform for the world community is to be loyal to American ideals, which are becoming the ideals of an ever-increasing part of the world’s population.