thought throughout the world is to the
effect that just as we have established an orderly method for the
settlement of disputes between individuals or groups of individuals in
any particular nation, we must now move forward and establish such
methods for the settlement of disputes among nations. There is no
civilised country in the world that any longer permits the individual to
take the law into his own hands.

The intelligent thought of the world now demands the definite
establishment of a World Federation for the enforcement of peace among
nations. It demands likewise the definite establishment of a permanent
World Court, backed by adequate force for the arbitrament of all
disputes among nations--unable to be adjusted by the nations themselves
in friendly conference. We have now reached the stage in world
development and in world intercourse where peace must be
internationalised. Our present chaotic condition, which exists simply
because we haven't taken time as yet to establish a method, must be
made to give place to an intelligently devised system of law and order.
Anything short of this means a periodic destruction of the finest fruits
of civilisation. It means also the periodic destruction of the finest
young manhood of the world. This means, in turn, the speedy degeneration
of the human race. The deification of force, augmented by all the
products and engines of modern science, is simply the way of sublimated
savagery.

The world is in need of a new dispensation. Recent events show
indisputably that we have reached the parting of the ways, the family of
nations must now push on into the new day or the world will plunge on
into a darker night. There is no other course in sight. I know of no
finer words penned in any language--this time it was in French--to
express an unvarying truth than these words by Victor Hugo: "There is
one thing that is stronger than armies, and that is an idea whose time
has come."

Never before, after viewing the great havoc wrought, the enormous debts
that will have to be paid for between fifty and a hundred years to come,
the tremendous disruptions and losses in trade, the misery and
degradation stalking broadcast over every land engaged in the
war--scarcely a family untouched--never before have nations been in the
state of mind to consider and to long to act upon some sensible and
comprehensive method of international concord and adjustments. If this
succeeds, the world, including