at least partially hidden to
ordinary thinking people. It revealed the national selfishness which
was manifested in the struggle for the control of trade, the extension
of territory, and the possession of the natural resources of the world.
This selfishness was even more clearly revealed when, in the Treaty of
Versailles and the formation of the League of Nations, each nation was
unwilling to make necessary sacrifice for the purpose of establishing
universal peace. They all appeared to feel the need of some
international agreement which should be permanent and each favored it,
could it first get what it wanted. Such was the power of tradition
regarding the sanctity of national life and the sacredness of national
territory and, moreover, of national prerogatives!

Nevertheless, the interchange of ideas connecting with the gruelling of
war caused change of ideas about government and developed, if not an
international mind, new modes of national thinking. The war brought
new visions of peace, and developed to a certain extent a recognition
of the rights of nations and an interest in one another's welfare.
There was an advance in the theory at least of international justice.
Also the world was shocked with the terror of war as well as its
futility and terrible waste. While national selfishness was not
eradicated, it was in a measure subdued, and a feeling of co-operation
started which eventually will result in unity of feeling, thought, and
action. The war brought into being a sentiment among the national
peoples that they will not in the future be forced into war without
their consent.

{489}

_Attempt to Form a League for Permanent Peace_.--Led by the United
States, a League of Nations was proposed which should settle all
disputes arising between nations without going to war. The United
States having suggested the plan and having helped to form the League,
finally refused to become a party to it, owing in part to the tradition
of exclusiveness from European politics--a tradition that has existed
since the foundation of the nation. Yet the United States was
suggesting a plan that it had long believed in, and a policy which it
had exercised for a hundred years with most nations. It took a
prominent part in the first peace conference called by the Czar of
Russia in 1899. The attempt to establish a permanent International
Tribunal ended in forming a permanent Court of Arbitration, which was
nothing more than an