e now than ever, between imperialism and liberty, between force
and right. May you in the United States profit by this lesson, so that
you may avoid falling into the European error. * * * It is barbarity
triumphant. But that triumph will be only momentary, and all agree at
the conclusion of this terrible drama on having a United States of
Europe with disarmament, or at least with armaments limited to a
collective police force.

*Third Letter.*

PARIS, Sept. 8, 1914.

* * * You have comprehended that France is struggling for justice and
peace. Be sure that she will resist even to the last man, with the
certainty that she is defending not herself alone but also civilization.
Never have I suspected to what degree of savagery man can be degraded by
unrestrained violence. I had believed that the world could never again
see the time of the Massacre of the Innocents; I deceived myself; we
have returned to barbarity, and the Prussian Army leaves us no
alternative between victory and extermination; should she become
mistress of Paris, which I doubt, and of the half of France, she will
find the other half which will bury her under its ruins. * * *

The English troops march on our roads, stop at Clermont-Creans! Oh,
miracle! I see among my compatriots the worst chauvinists, those who
openly desire for me the fate of Jaures, those who fought me in 1902
with cries of "Fashoda" or "Chicago," hasten to meet the English
soldiers in order to aid and acclaim them, in this country still full of
the memories and the ruins of the hundred years' war! It is because the
English troops are also defending the land of liberty, theirs as ours
and as yours. Every one except the Prussians comprehend this, and this
it is which exalts their souls! * * *

The whole misfortune, I repeat, is the result of the crime committed
forty-three years ago, the crime which we accepted to avoid recommencing
the war. Our resignation has not sufficed; it has not caused the trouble
to disappear; the German Government has none the less been obliged to
confirm it each day. The misfortune has been the forcible annexation of
Alsace-Lorraine. For that the Germans are paying today; for that they
will pay until they have made atonement for their fault. In this regard
France is irreproachable; she has resisted the chauvinists; our general
elections, the conferences of Berne and of Basle, have proved that, far
from seeking revenge, she wished by mutual concessions to ar