the Allies.
His address to the Senate clearly enunciated the only programme on
behalf of which America could intervene in European affairs. Never was
there a purer and more successful example of Fabian political strategy,
for Fabianism consists not merely in waiting but in preparing during
the meantime for the successful application of a plan to a confused and
dangerous situation.

"What Mr. Wilson did was to apply patience and brains to a complicated
and difficult but developing political situation. He was distinguished
from his morally indignant pro-Allies fellow countrymen, who a few
months ago were abusing him for seeking to make a specifically American
contribution to the issues of the war, just as Lincoln was
distinguished from the abolitionists, not so much by difference in
purposes as by greater political wisdom and intelligence. It is
because of his Fabianism, because he insisted upon waiting until he had
established a clear connection between American intervention and an
attempt to create a community of nations, that he can command and
secure for American intervention the full allegiance of the American
national conscience. His achievement is a great personal triumph, but
it is more than that. It is an illustration and a prophecy of the part
which intelligence and in general the 'intellectual' class have an
opportunity of playing in shaping American policy and in moulding
American life. The intimate association between action and ideas,
characteristic of American political practice at its best, has been
vindicated once more. The association was started at the foundation of
the Republic and was embodied in the work of the Fathers, but
particularly in that of Hamilton. It was carried on during the period
of the Civil War and was embodied chiefly in the patient and
penetrating intelligence which Abraham Lincoln brought to his task. It
has just been established in the region of foreign policy by Mr.
Wilson's discriminating effort to keep the United States out of the war
until it could go in as the instrument of an exclusively international
programme and with a fair prospect of getting its programme accepted.
In holding to this policy Mr. Wilson was interpreting with fidelity and
imagination the ideas and the aspirations of the more thoughtful
Americans. His success should give them increasing confidence in the
contribution which they as men of intelligence are capable of making to
the fulfilment of the