A PRACTICAL INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
man in Europe. Now, public opinion is the great hope and reliance of the peoples of the neutral nations of the earth. For the public opinion of the world is interrelated, and the convictions of the masses of the people outside of Europe, if made definitely and distinctly known to European peoples, will have a vast part in molding the European mind. Above all, the public opinion of America, the country in which more than in any other the masses of the people read and think and express their thoughts freely,—this American public opinion, I say, will have more influence upon European public opinion, as well as the public opinion of the world, than that of any other nation. Now, who makes this American public opinion? You and I. What shall we have to say with regard to the terms of peace at the close of this war? Well, we shall say at least the following things and insist upon them with all the force of our collective conviction. First, the terms of peace to be concluded in Europe must be of such a sort that they will not only avoid creating new reasons for future retaliations and revenges, in short, for future wars, but they must remove, so far as is possible in the nature of such negotiations, the causes of strife which have existed for so long and which have been the occasions of the upbuilding of that vast militaristic system under whose burden the European peoples groan. Second, the world should insist that the terms of peace shall not be such as to involve the crushing of any nation engaged in this conflict. It is well indeed that militarism shall be crushed forever; but it would be nothing but a calamity if any European nation should be humiliated to such an extent that the world would lose her cultural integrity, her distinct contributions to civilization, her self-respecting co-operation in the constructive work of the world.
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