contribute, in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great
result. We know, too, that the object of the war is attained; the object
upon which all free men had set their hearts; and attained with a
sweeping completeness which even now we do not realize. Armed
imperialism such as the men conceived who were but yesterday the masters
of Germany is at an end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in black
disaster. Who will now seek to revive it?

The arbitrary power of the military caste of Germany which once could
secretly and of its own single choice disturb the peace of the world is
discredited and destroyed. And more than that--much more than that--has
been accomplished. The great nations which associated themselves to
destroy it have now definitely united in the common purpose to set up
such a peace as will satisfy the longing of the whole world for
disinterested justice, embodied in settlements which are based upon
something much better and more lasting than the selfish competitive
interests of powerful states. There is no longer conjecture as to the
objects the victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, not
only, but a heart also. Their avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy
and protect the weak as well as to accord their just rights to the
strong.

The humane temper and intention of the victorious governments have
already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representatives
in the Supreme War Council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution
assured the peoples of the Central Empires that everything that is
possible in the circumstances will be done to supply them with food and
relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their
very lives; and steps are to be taken immediately to organize these
efforts at relief in the same systematic manner that they were organized
in the case of Belgium. By the use of the idle tonnage of the Central
Empires it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of utter
misery from their oppressed populations and set their minds and energies
free for the great and hazardous tasks of political reconstruction which
now face them on every hand. Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds
madness and all the ugly distempers that make an ordered life
impossible.

For with the fall of the ancient governments, which rested like an
incubus on the peoples of the Central Empires, has come political change
not merely, but revolution; and revolut