ally, neither in our trade nor in our
finance, nor in our industry, nor in all those intangible things that
give value to life can there be such a thing as isolation from the rest
of Christendom. If European civilization takes a "wrong turning"--and it
has done that more than once in the past--we can by no means escape the
effects of that catastrophe. We are deeply concerned, if only because we
may have to defend ourselves against it and in so doing necessarily
transform in some degree our society and ourselves.

And I wanted to show, secondly, that not only as a simple matter of fact
as things stand are we in a very real sense dependent upon Europe, that
we want European capital and European trade, and that if we are to do
the best for American prosperity we must increase that dependence, but
that if we are effectively to protect those things that go deeper even
than trade and prosperity, we must co-operate with Europe intellectually
and morally. It is not for us a question of choice. For good or evil, we
are part of the world affected by what the rest of the world becomes and
affected by what it does. And I want to show in my next article that
only by frankly facing the fact (which we cannot deny) that we are a
part of the civilized world and must play our part in it, shall we
achieve real security for our material and moral possessions and do the
best that we know for the general betterment of American life.

II.

AMERICA'S FUTURE ATTITUDE

In my last article I attempted to show how deeply must America feel,
sooner or later, and for good or evil, the moral and material results
of the upheavals in Europe and the new tendencies that will be generated
by them. I attempted to show, too, how impossible it is for us to escape
our part of all the costs, how we shall pay our share of the
indemnities, and how our children and children's children may be
affected even more profoundly than we ourselves.

The shells may not hit us, yet there is hardly a farmhouse in our
country that will not, however unconsciously, be affected by these
far-off events. We may not witness the trains of weary refugees trailing
over the roads, but (if we could but see the picture) there will be an
endless procession of our own farmers' wives with a hardened and
shortened life and their children with less ample opportunities.

And our ideals of the future will in some measure be twisted by the
moral and material bankruptcy of Europe. Those who