is honor unsmirched,
untainted! Here is pride unhumbled! Here is patriotism that is
all-embracing, that makes us so zealous for real honor that we turn
from the horrors of war to combat the evils that lie at our very
doors.

We know that faith in such national honor will abolish war. We know,
too, that men will have war only so long as they want war. If this be
true, then, just as soon as you and I, in whose hands the final
decision for or against war must ever rest, express through the force
of an irresistible public opinion the doctrine that our conception of
national honor demands the arbitration of every dispute, just so soon
will our legislators free themselves from financial dictators and
liberate the country from the dominance of a false conception of
national honor.

Do you say this ideal is impractical? History proves that questions of
the utmost importance can be peacefully settled without the loss of
honor. The Casa Blanca dispute between France and Germany, the
Venezuela question, the North Atlantic Fisheries case, the Alabama
claims--these are proof indisputable that questions of honor may be
successfully arbitrated. "Does not this magnificent achievement," says
Carl Schurz of the Alabama settlement, "form one of the most glorious
pages of the common history of England and America? Truly, the two
great nations that accomplished this need not be afraid of
unadjustable questions of honor in the future."

In the face of such splendid examples, how meaningless is the doctrine
of the enemies of peace, "We will not arbitrate questions of national
honor. We will decide for ourselves what is right and for that right
we will stand, even if this course plunges us into the maelstrom of
war. We will not allow our country to be dishonored by any other."
Well has Andrew Carnegie expressed the modern view: "Our country
cannot be dishonored by any other country, or by all the powers
combined. It is impossible. All honor wounds are self-inflicted. We
alone can dishonor ourselves or our country. One sure way of doing so
is to insist upon the unlawful and unjust demand that we sit as judges
in our own case, instead of agreeing to abide by the decision of a
court or a tribunal. We are told that this is the stand of a weakling,
that progress demands the fighting spirit. We, too, demand the
fighting spirit; but we condemn the military spirit. We are told that
strong men fight for honor. We answer with Mrs. Mead: 'Justice and