all we
can--concessions, monopolies, profits--will depend upon how great is
the internal economic strain pressing us outward, upon whether our
conditions are such that the gains from a selfish national
aggrandisement will outweigh the large, slow gains of international
co-operation. Ideals will also count, as will tradition and precedent.
Even chance enters into the decision. If, for example, by some change
in the internal affairs of Germany we are thrown into an alliance {12}
with England, France and Russia, a direction will be given to our
international policy which it may take years to change. The accident
which found Admiral Dewey in Asiatic waters on a certain day in April,
1898, has not been without its influence upon the ensuing foreign
policy of the United States.

For those who wish to use our armed forces to secure special advantages
(trade, monopolies, fields for investment), the road is broad and
clearly marked. They have only to do what other aggressive and
imperialistic nations have done--prepare the means of fighting and
threaten to fight either alone or with allies whenever a favouring
opportunity offers. But for those of us who desire to make America an
agency in the creation of international peace the problem is infinitely
more difficult. Peace and internationalism cannot be secured by
fervent wishes or piety but only by persistent effort and measureless
patience. That for which men have sought in vain during so many
centuries will not fall like ripe fruit into our laps.

Towards this goal of internationalism all that is best in America
aspires. The American tradition points towards internationalism. Our
early settlers, as also many of our later immigrants, came to these
shores to escape political and religious warfare, and brought with them
a broad humanitarian ideal, an ideal of peace, internationalism,
freedom and equality. They also brought an antipathy towards those
monarchical and aristocratic institutions, with which in America we
still associate conceptions of imperialism and war. The simplicity and
inherent equality of our frontier life, its self-government and its
local independence, tended to reinforce our leaning towards a peaceful
internationalism. Our large spaces, our ease of movement, our freedom
from the militaristic and excessively nationalistic traditions of the
European Continent {13} influenced us in a like direction, as did also
the merging of many peoples into one n