ch they possess.

American statesmen in the field of international diplomacy are like
babies, taking their first few steps. Later the steps come easier and
easier, until a child, who but a few months ago could not walk, has
learned to romp and sport about. The masters of the United States are
untrained in the arts of international intrigue. They showed their
inferiority in the most painful way during the negotiations over the
Paris Treaty. They are as yet unschooled in international trade, banking
and finance. They are also inexperienced in war, yet, having only raw
troops, and little or no equipment, within two years they made a notable
showing on the battlefields of Europe. Now they are busy learning their
financial lessons with an equal facility. A generation of contact with
world politics will bring to the fore diplomats capable of meeting
Europe's best on their own ground. What Europe has learned, America can
learn; what Europe has practiced, America can practice, and in the end
she may excel her teachers.

To-day economic forces are driving relentlessly. Surplus is accumulating
in a geometric ratio--surplus piling on surplus. This surplus must be
disposed of. While the remainder of the world--except Japan--is
staggering under intolerable burdens of debt and disorganization, the
United States emerges almost unscathed from the war, and prepares in
dead earnest to enter the international struggle,--to play at the master
game of "eat or be eaten."

Pride, ambition and love of gain and of power are pulling the American
plutocrats forward. The world seems to be within their grasp. If they
will reach out their hands they may possess it! They have assumed a
great responsibility. As good Americans worthy of the tradition of their
ancestors, they must see this thing through to the end! They must win,
or die in the attempt; and it is in this spirit that they are going
forward.

The American capitalists do not want war with Great Britain or with any
other country. They are not seeking war. They will regret war when it
comes.

War is expensive, troublesome and dangerous. The experiences of Europe
in the War of 1914 have taught some lessons. The leaders and thinkers
among the masters of America have visited Europe. They have seen the old
institutions destroyed, the old customs uprooted, the old faiths
overturned. They have seen the economic order in which they were vitally
concerned hurled to the earth and shattered. They