"I beg your pardon," said Jackson. "America's a great country, but as you told me just now, she's solid. That means she's so keen on getting on with the work that she's chosen a boss and told him to go ahead and give his orders, and so long as he does his best to get on with the work, the people aren't going to quarrel with him. Now we are not really solid, just because we're too much of a democracy."
"Say, you wouldn't think that if you'd been over and seen our last elections; but there's sense in it, all the same. But Lloyd George—isn't he the same sort of Big Stick over here?"
"You read our political papers and see," said Jackson. "Do you take much interest in politics in your Navy?"
"Do we hell—does yours?"
"Not a bit, except to curse at them. Navies are outside politics."
"Except the German's, and their army and navy and politics are all the same thing; and they'll all come down together, too."
"Yes, but it's going to take some tough scrapping to do it. Let's hope no one starts fighting over the corpse when she's beaten."
"Well, I guess you won't, and we won't. We've both got all the land we can do with, and if there are any colonies to hand out after, we won't mind who gets 'em so long as the Kaiser doesn't. What we ought to do is to join England in a policing act for the world, and just keep them all from fighting."
"That'd be no good. The rest of them would combine against us. It would only mean a different Balance of Power."
"Oh! Now you're talking European. We stand out of the old-world Balance."