ay will be sought to prevent secondary problems from leading nations
to war. A single instance of a joint successful enterprise of the
powers in a single economic field would act as a powerful inducement to
attempt joint action in other {269} cases. It is not to be assumed
that all the questions dividing Europe are to be solved in a day or by
a single decision. What is required is not one plan which will
safeguard all the nations all the time but an inclination or desire to
afford a measure of economic security to all and a gradual working out
of a machinery, which will effect a settlement here and a settlement
there and will in the end develop certain general lines of policy. It
is not for a single economic setback that nations go to war, nor even
because of a slower development than that of rivals; the chief animus
is an ever present fear of industrial _debacle_. Economic insecurity,
even more than present economic distress, forces nations to resort to
arms. The way out is towards some form of internationalisation of the
great external opportunities upon which the home industry of the nation
depends.

Is such a development probable? Will the nations in this generation or
in five generations agree to make sacrifices to permit their rivals to
live? It is a question not lightly to be answered. We cannot be
dogmatic concerning the future development of industry and of
international relations when we cannot see clearly a dozen years ahead.
Yet the very intensity, the almost pathological intensity, of the
nationalistic economic struggle to-day is an indication that it may be
approaching a change. In the midst of this struggle, there appears
below the surface the signs of a growing economic internationalism.

[1] "The Stakes of Diplomacy," New York, 1916, pp. 132-135.

[2] The _New Republic_, May 8, 1915.

[3] The _New Republic_, May 8th, 1915.

{270}

CHAPTER XX

THE FORCES OF INTERNATIONALISM

An internationalism, which will bind the nations together into one
economic unit, can be secured only as a result of a further political
and economic development, limiting the power and autonomy of the
several nations. Without pressure, external or internal, no union or
agreement among the nations can be expected. The thirteen American
colonies would not have been willing to live together had they been
able to live separately, and, similarly, to-day the great powers would
make no concessions to interna