m the
great rule of righteousness which bids us treat each man on his worth
as a man. He must not be sentimentally favored because he belongs to a
given race; he must not be given immunity in wrong-doing or permitted
to cumber the ground, or given other privileges which would be denied
to the vicious and unfit among ourselves. On the other hand, where he
acts in a way which would entitle him to respect and reward if he was
one of our own stock, he is just as entitled to that respect and
reward if he comes of another stock, even though that other stock
produces a much smaller proportion of men of his type than does our
own. This has nothing to do with social intermingling, with what is
called social equality. It has to do merely with the question of doing
to each man and each woman that elementary justice which will permit
him or her to gain from life the reward which should always accompany
thrift, sobriety, self-control, respect for the rights of others, and
hard and intelligent work to a given end. To more than such just
treatment no man is entitled, and less than such just treatment no man
should receive.

The other type of duty is the international duty, the duty owed by one
nation to another. I hold that the laws of morality which should
govern individuals in their dealings one with the other, are just as
binding concerning nations in their dealings one with the other. The
application of the moral law must be different in the two cases,
because in one case it has, and in the other it has not, the sanction
of a civil law with force behind it. The individual can depend for his
rights upon the courts, which themselves derive their force from the
police power of the State. The nation can depend upon nothing of the
kind; and therefore, as things are now, it is the highest duty of the
most advanced and freest peoples to keep themselves in such a state of
readiness as to forbid to any barbarism or despotism the hope of
arresting the progress of the world by striking down the nations that
lead in that progress. It would be foolish indeed to pay heed to the
unwise persons who desire disarmament to be begun by the very peoples
who, of all others, should not be left helpless before any possible
foe. But we must reprobate quite as strongly both the leaders and the
peoples who practise, or encourage, or condone, aggression and
iniquity by the strong at the expense of the weak. We should tolerate
lawlessness and wickedness neit