“Yes, yes, it has been smouldering now for a number of years. But we must not wait until the flames break out; it is time for us to trample out the sparks.” Toker spoke these last words in a wrathful tone. “Patience ceases to be a virtue,” he went on to say, “when it consists in allowing misfortune to approach; then it should be called simply unconcern. Now read this also.” He handed the prince some letters and telegrams for him to glance over. “Those are private communications from parties in a position to be well informed. They show much more clearly than the news published in the papers that the evil so much talked about is ready to appear.”
The prince read the letters and dispatches carefully. “In truth,” was his comment, “things do look a bit threatening. What do you propose, Mr. Toker, in order to avert the danger? And do you think there is still time enough?”
“The term ‘too late’ should never be allowed when the question concerns a work of help or rescue. As you yourself just remarked, for a number of years conflicts have cropped up in the most varied places; panics have been precipitated; people have been getting ready for the conflict; the catastrophe has been generally expected, and then nothing has come of it. In early times it was not so. When the well-known black speck appeared on the political horizon, one could expect a storm with certainty. Now new forces have entered into the world, which have succeeded in driving away the clouds. The peaceable intentions of the rulers have been strengthened; the pugnacity of the nations has been curbed—the world is gradually changing. And perhaps these perils also”—he pointed to the newspapers and letters—“will be dissipated and there will be time to act. Only we must not delay. If we allow things to go on unchecked, the crash must come.”
“Well, what is to be done? And what could I do to help? A little princelet like me—I need not tell you—has no power and no liberty. Even at this minute, while I am engaging in this conspiracy with you behind the back of my honorary jailer, General Orell, I am deeply involving myself in disgrace!”
Toker smiled. “This is not your first offense, as I have reason to suspect. Your attendance at popular meetings is well known; your predilection for the reading of sociological books, not receivable at court, is well known. But for the very reason that you have a knowledge of the problems of the day and an open mind, I have turned to you. So, then, listen—this is the thing:—A new Hague Conference is about to be opened....”
“Pardon me,” interrupted Victor Adolph, “these conferences have so far failed to bring about the change expected of them.”
“Still, they have brought something significant, new, and great into the world—the generality of the people certainly know very little about them. They have not attained their object for the reason that they have been diverted from that object by their own members:—an article was smuggled into the programme that had no business to be there—regulation of war:—for a large proportion of the delegates consisted either of soldiers or adherents of sovereignty. These men were assiduous in keeping the old principles safe from the danger with which they were threatened by the conference as originally proposed—that is, from compulsory arbitration and limitation of armament. But the old principles have not remained entirely intact, for there were also representatives of the new ideas at The Hague, who fortunately achieved the foundation of new institutions. Imagine a congress of freethinkers in which the majority of the delegates were bishops and where the larger part of the time was spent in discussing the regulation of ritualistic forms!... There you have a picture of the first Hague Peace Congresses. But I am speaking of the next one. Since the last one, things have ripened. Since then, the desire for peace has strengthened among all the governments, and especially among the masses. Since then the waste of money on armaments has reached such dimensions that universal bankruptcy is at hand. Since then, the battleships have grown into such monsters, and all the other instruments of death and destruction have attained such fiendish power, that they serve not so much for fighting as for combined self-annihilation.... Since then, the common people have been brought to the end of their endurance by loans and taxes and high prices. Since then, the proletariat, always hostile to war, has more and more come to a realization of its solidarity and power. Since then, so many friendships, treaties, and conventions have arisen that it needs now only an impulse for a general European ‘Legal Union.’ Since then, all the groups interested have combined in an international organization. Since then, a world-conscience has come into being. Since then, the atmosphere has been conquered. Since then, human thoughts have attained wings.... Since then....”
The old gentleman had worked himself into a fine heat; he had got up, and at every sentence his voice had grown louder. At the last “Since then,” he suddenly stopped and sat down again. Then he went on in a calmer tone:—
“Here we will pause—at the conception ‘Soaring Thoughts.’ The delegates to the next conference are to be inspired with such thinking. They must bring with them the resolution to accomplish something great, something bold. The position of affairs has so entirely changed in the mean time, with its promising new possibilities, and the dangers, so nearly threatening, must be looked in the face unflinchingly. That would be our salvation.”
“But what can I do in all this, Mr. Toker?”