I think the
thing is changing very rapidly--they came with all their bristles out;
they came on the defensive; they came to see, not what they could
accomplish, but what they could prevent. They did not come to guide;
they came to block. That is of no use whatever to the general body
politic. What has got to pervade us like a great motive power is that we
cannot, and must not, separate our interests from one another, but must
pool our interests. A man who is trying to fight for his single hand is
fighting against the community and not fighting with it. There are a
great many dreadful things about war, as nobody needs to be told in this
day of distress and of terror, but there is one thing about war which
has a very splendid side, and that is the consciousness that a whole
nation gets that they must all act as a unit for a common end. And when
peace is as handsome as war there will be no war. When men, I mean,
engage in the pursuits of peace in the same spirit of self-sacrifice and
of conscious service of the community with which, at any rate, the
common soldier engages in war, then shall there be wars no more. You
have moved the vanguard for the United States in the purposes of this
association just a little nearer that ideal. That is the reason I am
here, because I believe it.

There is a specific matter about which I, for one, want your advice. Let
me say, if I may say it without disrespect, that I do not think you are
prepared to give it right away. You will have to make some rather
extended inquiries before you are ready to give it. What I am thinking
of is competition in foreign markets as between the merchants of
different nations.

I speak of the subject with a certain degree of hesitation, because the
thing farthest from my thought is taking advantage of nations now
disabled from playing their full part in that competition, and seeking a
sudden selfish advantage because they are for the time being disabled.
Pray believe me that we ought to eliminate all that thought from our
minds and consider this matter as if we and the other nations now at war
were in the normal circumstances of commerce.

There is a normal circumstance of commerce in which we are apparently at
a disadvantage. Our anti-trust laws are thought by some to make it
illegal for merchants in the United States to form combinations for the
purpose of strengthening themselves in taking advantage of the
opportunities of foreign trade. That is a very