t large in a given time
than the rule of the most enlightened democracy. It is certain that
such men occupy the thrones of this earth but once in a blue moon.

If proof be needed that the prevalence of democracy alone can end
aggression among nations, secure the rights of small peoples, foster
justice and humaneness in man--let the history of this last century
and a half be well examined, and let the human probabilities be
weighed. Which is the more likely to advocate wars of aggression?
They, who by age, position, wealth, are secure against the daily
pressure of life and the sacrifice that war entails, they who have
passed their time out of touch with the struggle for existence, in an
atmosphere of dreams, ambitions, and power over other men? Or they,
who every hour are reminded how hard life is, even at its most
prosperous moments, who have nothing to gain by war, and all, even
life, to lose; who by virtue of their own struggles have a deep
knowledge of, a certain dumb sympathy with, the struggles of their
fellow-creatures; an instinctive repugnance to making those struggles
harder; who have heard little and dreamed less of those so-called
"national interests," that are so often mere chimeras; who love, no
doubt, in their inarticulate way the country where they were born, and
the modes of life and thought to which they are accustomed, but know
of no traditional and artificial reasons why the men of other
countries should not be allowed to love their own land and modes of
thought and life in equal peace and security?

Assuredly, the latter of these two kinds of men are the less likely to
favor ambitious projects and aggressive wars. According as "the
people" have or have not the final decision in such matters, the
future of Europe will be made of war or peace; of respect or of
disregard for the rights of little nations. It is advanced against
democracies that the workers of a country, ignorant and provincial in
outlook, have no grasp of international politics. This is true in
Europe where national ambitions and dreams are still for the most part
hatched and nurtured in nests perched high above the real needs and
sentiments of the simple working folk who form nine-tenths of the
population of each country. But once those nests of aggressive
nationalism have fallen from their high trees, so soon as all Europe
conforms to the principle of rule by consent of the governed, it will
be found--as it has been already found in