Yet there is not under heaven an evil for which there is no remedy. If the people sacrificed to armament makers, diplomats, and dynasts will join hands across the world they can overcome the enemies without and within. Their strength, if they will but put it forward, is irresistible, far greater than they know. They should have no more illusions. They are many; those who exploit them are few. Before the war the great international movement was growing. A series of ultimatums, of frenzied calls to patriotism, racial prejudice and fear, frosted the ripening blossoms, but could not reach the root that lies deep down in the heart of suffering humanity. Internationalism will rise again. Those who have a finger upon the pulse of the workers the world over, know that the life forces, depressed for a time, are giving a growing vigour to the beat. Already they see the rulers of the world deploring the catastrophe that they brought about, becoming conscious that their hands drip blood. Already they see that normal evils are not merely remaining unabated but are actually growing, that a world returned to sanity and humility will find more vileness to combat and fewer means to its aid. It will look for a lead.
That is why there is so much reason to hope that the United States will not be drawn into war. There, the workers of Europe are already beginning to look for guidance, direction, help, and actual co-operation in the ultimate struggle for freedom, that when war is over they may combat the yet worse evils around them. Our thoughts turn to the New World, redeemed from kings and popes and the tragic remains of feudalism, and, largely on that account, at peace. Consider the vile, naked truth that we in England may lack the means adequately to conquer the "social disease," the white scourge, the slum problem, and other shames of man's own making because our national resources are being sacrificed to such destruction as sun, moon, and stars have never looked upon since first they lit the earth.
Our rulers, our statesmen, our parliaments, our laws alike, have failed us. Judge them by their fruits, as hereafter surely they must be judged. There is nothing left between Europe and the abyss but the solidarity of the working classes, the spread of democracy, the overthrow of every effete institution that exists for no better reason than that it has been allowed to exist so long. We, the Internationalists, look to the United States, that island of sanity set in a raging sea of madness. We look to it for light and leading, for encouragement and support. It is the only great power left to read the lessons of world-war without prejudice. I would like the terrible indictment penned against our modern civilisation by the Royal Commission to be read by every thinking American of whose political faith democracy is the vital essence.[1]
"This is that Blossom on our human tree
Which opens once in many myriad years
But opened, fills the world with Wisdom's scent
And Love's dropped honey."
FOOTNOTE:
[1] I would like it studied in the red light of war, that our cousins oversea with their generous instincts, quick judgment and resourceful minds may be stimulated to assist the workers of all nations when once this terrible chapter of our life is closed. United action will make impossible in the future all wars save that which is waged against disease, privilege, and ineffectiveness.