g to different peoples freedom of action according to the
capacities of each. It is not possible, as the world is now
constituted, to treat every nation as one private individual can treat
all other private individuals, because as yet there is no way of
enforcing obedience to law among nations as there is among private
individuals. If in the streets of this city a man walks about with the
intent to kill somebody, if he manages his house so that it becomes a
source of infection to the neighborhood, the community, with its law
officers, deals with him forthwith. That is just what happened at
Panama, and, as nobody else was able to deal with the matter, I dealt
with it myself, on behalf of the United States Government, and now the
Canal is being dug, and the people of Panama have their independence
and a prosperity hitherto unknown in that country.
In the end, I firmly believe that some method will be devised by which
the people of the world, as a whole, will be able to insure peace, as
it cannot now be insured. How soon that end will come I do not know;
it may be far distant; and until it does come I think that, while we
should give all the support that we can to any possible feasible
scheme for quickly bringing about such a state of affairs, yet we
should meanwhile do the more practicable, though less sensational,
things. Let us advance step by step; let us, for example, endeavor to
increase the number of arbitration treaties and enlarge the methods
for obtaining peaceful settlements. Above all, let us strive to awaken
the public international conscience, so that it shall be expected, and
expected efficiently, of the public men responsible for the management
of any nation's affairs that those affairs shall be conducted with all
proper regard for the interests and well-being of other Powers, great
or small.
* * * * *
THE WORLD MOVEMENT
An Address Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910
I very highly appreciate the chance to address the University of
Berlin in the year that closes its first centenary of existence. It is
difficult for you in the Old World fully to appreciate the feelings of
a man who comes from a nation still in the making, to a country with
an immemorial historic past; and especially is this the case when that
country, with its ancient past behind it, yet looks with proud
confidence into the future, and in the present shows all the abounding
vig
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