The world must never again be stretched and tortured on the German rack. Ours is the problem; ours the solution. The world has learned, with a knowledge born of tragedies too numerous, too horrible to record, that regardless of what leader or class rules Germany, war will be waged against it by that country, because the force which compels it to action is an inseparable part of the mass-soul of that nation.
True, that soul, at one time, might have been otherwise fashioned.
But that time was in the civilizing cycle of a thousand years ago. Now it is too late.
We know that. Our men of 1917 did not. They had no precedent on which to base their experience. We have not that excuse today. Their futile sacrifices and their empty efforts must today dictate our own actions and decisions.
We are paying today for the lack of experience of the last generation in dealing with the peoples of the German nation. When and if the time comes for us to take similar decision and action we must not repeat their mistake. The cost is far too great; not alone for us, but for all future generations.
—5—
