men are the favors of kings," and asserted instead that "all men are created equal." The people may have exactly the kind of laws they desire. This desire will result in international legislation along the same lines that interstate legislation was introduced a century and a half ago. When all matters are so adjusted that peace and not war will be the future relations between nations, public opinion first shall have approved of same, and its approval is now manifest, but the proper political machinery to put these laws or the statutes of nations has not yet been completed.

There are about forty-five thousand magazines and periodicals published in the world to-day. Of this number, approximately sixty per cent. of them are published in the confines of one country. That country must necessarily be a reading nation, for the publishing of magazines and periodicals is a commercial business, and there must be a demand for them or they would not be published. Where a public spends a large amount of money for reading matter, we may rest assured that that public is educated to a high degree, and their intellectuality reaches into hitherto hidden fields of endeavor and accomplishment. The existing public opinion of such a nation carries tremendous weight, which undoubtedly will be able to throw the balance of power of nations in favor of common sense and the abandonment of barbaric methods and practices between nations in the settlement of important business. The nation I am referring to in the above allusion is the United States of American, on whom, from now on, will rest the heavy weight and responsibility of seeing to it that the international laws of the world will be put on a par with the interstate laws of any one nation of the larger type. The American Republic without a doubt is reserved for the culmination of the pacifist idea, and in the same manner

the principles which the monarchs of Europe declare to be treason will become the fundamentals of a world constitution; liberty will be enthroned, equality guaranteed, and fraternity made the basis of World Union, as they made the above for Federal Union in 1776.

For a desperate disease a desperate cure is necessary. The only disease now prevalent among the Governments of the world to-day is that of militarism, which is a malignant cancer that eats away the vitals of civilization, and destroys its growth and progress. Public opinion is a strong force and is sure to follow a straight line forward and upward for the benefit of the human race.

Even Opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life. -Montague

Public opinion is the directing force of every great national policy, and it is the determining energy which impels the Governmental machinery. It dictates planks, platforms and creeds of political parties. It commands Congresses, serves Senators, elects Governors and Presidents and dictates the policies of administrations. Bryce says that opinion has been the chief and ultimate power in all nations and in all times, and that Governments have always rested, if not on the active approval, at least on the silent acquiescence of the numerical majority. Public opinion is firm in its power, unlimited in its demands, and always "to kings a problem,-to the world a blessing." It has been often said that saying is one thing, and doing another, which is literally true, but, when public opinion is made up, saying and doing are one and the same operation.

Some time ago a writer tried to show and prove that public opinion is often wrong. His strongest point and argu

ment appeared in this manner: "Granting that the will of the majority ought always to prevail, yet the indisputable records of history assert that the maxim, 'Vox Populi Vox Dei' (the voice of the people is the voice of God), is unreliable. Is public opinion infallible? Is not Democratic might as much tyranny as Divine right? Had the ideas of the majority always been correct, 'truth need not have travelled the road to martyrdom through so many weary years.' How oft has humanity, blinded by passion and misled by falsehood, scourged its benefactors and rejected its Savior! How many times the wail for justice has been drowned in the howl for blood! In the shadow of the Parthenon Athens doomed her

Socrates, and in sight of Bunker Hill Monument Boston mobbed her Phillips, and before the gates of Jerusalem the world crucified its Christ." Is public opinion then a contradiction, and is Democracy and popular government then a fallacy? We receive the answer from the proud population of Brazilonce subjects, now citizens- NO. From fifty millions of French patriots we receive the same answer, NO!

While one hundred millions of American freemen unite with the swelling chorus in a thundering NO! The fact that contemporary opinion is not public opinion did not seem to be within his cognizance, or he would not have written as he did.

Public opinion is formed slowly, which is also the case in regard to the formation of sound judgment. It requires time, for the mind of the mass moves slowly. When truth comes into its own, as it always does eventually, the immense heart of civilization heart of civilization throbs with sympathy and all rational beings make haste to correct the wrongs done so far as it lies in their power to do, as was done in regard to the celebrities above mentioned, for, on the marble bust of Socrates was placed the laurel wreath, and the chis

elled statue of Phillips graces the hall of fame, while in deep and silent reverence a penitent world bows before the altar of its Savior. Public opinion may be slow, but it is also sure, and when it does arrive the discordant element gets into the band-wagon too. Thus humanity forever moves forward, onward and upward toward eternal truth. Public opinion which first gave birth to the democratic idea springing from the germ of liberty implanted in humanity's breast, and developing with the growth of intellect, has gradually moved forward supplanting institutions continually, and reforming social structures as they are reached.

From the Isles of Greece and the Hills of Judea, public opinion has traversed the continents and passed the seas; it has marshalled the Republican armies of France; led to battle the Puritan warriors of England; it has called to arms the Continental soldiers of America. It has been instrumental in bringing forth laws and governments suited to the needs of humanity and in harmony with the enlightenment of the world at the time. It sailed in the ships of the Vikings and dwelt in the huts of the Saxons. Foretold by seers and sung in story, it has been the one guarantor of Freedom and Liberty.

On public opinion are centered the hopes of humanity. In it are found the guarantees of future prosperity, and upon it are reared the glorious structure of political greatness. From the altars of public opinion ascend the prayers of down-trodden humanity, while through its halls re-echo the shouts of free peoples, and upon its massive columns are engraven the names of its heroes. Beneath its gilded walls repose the ashes of its martyrs, while from the keystone of the topmost arch is raised in letters of fire, For Humanity.

As the light of public opinion shines forth, the darkness of war with its

woe

disappears forever. In every land there throbs the ever stronger pulse-beat of progressive humankind, and that pulse-beat is now being accel

erated until the one stumbling block of progress-war-will remain only as a blot on the darkest pages of human history.

T

HE Great War in Europe has its immediate origin in rival military efficiency. The nation devoting most of its energy to this has had a body of commissioned officers said to number about 30,000 in all, nearly all drawn from the privileged classes, and who have never demeaned themselves by any common work. These men have been trained to war. They know no other pursuit. They have behind them a conscript army, composed of every normal young man in the nation. They control, unchecked, destructive agencies without limit, Zeppelins, submarines, mines, machine guns, giant artillery, dynamite, and suffocating gasses, none of which had ever had a serious test in the actual work of killing. They had spent wearisome days in the child's game of Kriegspiel, moving legions of colored pins back and forth over the map of Europe. They had spent meaningless months sailing round and round in iron tubs from one dull port to another. No wonder that they looked forward to the hour when play should give place to reality.

A nation in arms is a nation perverted. The conscript has no wish to fight, except as his impulses may be stirred by fear or hate, and one function of barrack life is to excite these impulses. A German once told me of an experience in his younger days.

Crossing into France he saw there sons of French going off to their maneuvers. One of them reached out of the door of the car, put his two hands on his mothers' shoulders, and kissed her. This to the German was a paralyzing revelation. To him, Frenchmen had always been "the enemy," heartless men whose sole aim was destruction and desolation, and here was one who loved his mother just like any German. So, after all, these detested Frenchmen were only a band of wholesome young fellows, who might just as well have come out of Rhineland or Bavaria. But were it not for the constant menace of "the enemy," for the most part conjured up by the conscript system. itself, to spend some of his best years in the ranks would appear for what it is, a wretched waste of time.

While the rivalry of military efficiency may explain the onset of the Great War, it does not tell how the military caste arose, how it got its power and how it came to dominate civil authority in civilized Europe. Behind all this lies a medieval conception of nationality, which the growth of democracy has failed to dispel. In this conception the nation is not the aggregate of its people, but a power apart and above them, holding them in the hollow of its hand. It has no code of morals, there being no power above

it, and its only sin is that of failure. It is, therefore, in fact as well as in metaphor, an independent entity, eager, jealous, benevolent, arrogant, like any individual man.

Besides the military group and their backers, the war traders-powerful and sinister, lay certain elements without which these twin groups of "Makers of Madness" could hardly have risen to gain a strangle-hold in any nation of civilized Europe. In the last century a most profitable line of business was opened up under the name of exploitation. Backward and barbarous countries, especially in the tropics, have a wealth unappreciated by its owners, in gold, silver, precious stones, spices, rubber, oil and a host of other objects which civilized Europe is eager to buy. In these regions capital is not subject to the economic and humanitarian regulations imposed by civilized society. There are no statutes against child-labor, contract labor, excessive hours; there exists none of the exactions, wise or unwise, imposed by trade unions and other associations intended to check capitalistic abuses. Every

movement of exploitation in foreign countries lays heavier burdens on the workers at home. The export of capital leaves a smaller wage-fund, and a greater body of the unemployed. In all imperial operations, the cost falls on the many, the gains to the few. To actual warfare between great nations, most capitalists are opposed, because in international struggles their losses outweigh their gains. Yet, broadly speaking, war in our day is at bottom, "a capitalistic venture." And the common men who fight without wages on the battle-line, are largely, but not wholly, victims of illusions, derived from false teachings of patriotism and of national glory, fostered under the War System.

In tropical regions labor is cheap and can be made cheaper by the judicious use of force. That "red rubber," for

example, should be colored by blood does not injure it for automobile tires. Then in connection with tropical industries, banking and transportation roll up large profits, at the same time conferring benefits to the people concerned. Exploitation is not wrong in itself. It becomes a menace only when it is accompanied by injustice, violence, and the backing of diplomacy.

Most nations allow any exploiter to carry his nation's flag. He has thus a call on his nation's help in whatsoever he is trying to do. As a result of this, all diplomacy being secret and everything secret mostly corrupt, the chancelleries of Europe have been often degraded into protective agencies of adventurers in foreign lands. They have been largely only the firm names under which exploiters carry on their business.

The expression "sphere of influence" has a meaning mostly evil. The conflicts of those controlling those spheres, with the natives on one hand and with rival promoters on the other have formed an unsavory part of the history of the Nineteenth Century. Diplomacy is a tame profession unless it has force of arms behind it. To be effective, it must bear brass knuckles. Soldiers. to fight and war-ships to "demonstrate" are a part of its regular operations.

Then again, great prizes are sometimes offered in diplomacy. Constantinople is one of these, the valley of the Euphrates another, and vast treasures exist in India and China. It is not strange that rival diplomacies demand larger and larger armies, more and more powerful navies, and that all resources of hatred, fear and "patriotism" have been exerted to secure these accessories of power. Thus arose the "Armed Peace," otherwise called the "Dry War," which has raged in Europe since 1908. It sprang from the "War of Steel and Gold" which has its inception much farther back. The "Race for the for the Abyss" ("La Cours vers