Frenchmen and Russians by Germans and Austrians, that preference will no doubt be suitably expressed and the result measured in terms of annihilated army corps and shattered navies. But a Providential neutrality would seem more in keeping with the eternal fitness of things.

Fixing the Responsibility

It is an idle task for the average man to endeavor to fix responsibility for the European cataclysm, for in almost every case the analysis of conditions, however carefully made, leads to a decision favorable to the individual's own nation, or to the nation with which he has the strongest personal ties. Sincerity is far from rare, but true impartiality needs diligent seeking.

Denunciation and laudation are of little value now, and may well be left for quieter times. The impelling force of nationality, the different perspectives of all national histories, must define the issue for the vast majority.

But some of the responsibility may be fixed, perhaps to our profit, now. Let the churches of the world, that have achieved so little with their vast resources and opportunities, take their share of the blame. Let the schools and colleges of the world, with the petty provincialism of their methods, take their share also. Let the press of the world, that with a few notable exceptions has turned freedom into license, take its own share-a generous share, well worked for and well deserved. And let all the little sectarian and class agencies that preach and practise the lessons of separation instead of unity, take the share that belongs to them for maintaining in the world the spirit of ill-will instead of the spirit of brotherhood, that so many still ridicule, because they cannot hear with their ears, or see with their eyes, or comprehend with their hearts.

The Mob

THE mob in St. Petersburg attacked the German Embassy. The mob in Berlin attacked the Russian and British Embassies.

The mobs in Paris and London made demonstrations against the German Embassies.

The mob everywhere and at all times may be relied upon to make itself ridiculous. Unfortunately, there are still large numbers of people who confuse mobocracy with democracy. That is one of the reasons why democracy has been such a conspicuous failure, so far, in the modern world. But the journalists of the mob, and the graft-hunting politicians of the mob, are entirely content. They imagine, amongst other things, that a republic consists in the mere name, and that it may carry its Murphys and similar parasites and still, by the grace of God, throw a shining light to illumine the darkness of all other governments.

The Big Man-and the Little Man

PRESIDENT WILSON at Annapolis, 1914:

"The idea of America is to serve humanity, and every time you let the Stars and Stripes free to the wind you ought to realize that that is in itself a message, that you are on an errand which other navies have sometimes forgotten, not an errand of conquest, but an errand of service."

Colonel Roosevelt at Camden, 1912:

"It wasn't much of a war, but it was all the war there was, and it wasn't my fault if there wasn't enough to go round." Colonel Roosevelt in New York, Memorial Day, 1911:

"It wasn't much of a war, but it was all the war there was, and it was not our fault there wasn't enough to go round."

[Reprinted by request. Even Colonel Roosevelt may consider the present European war big enough to satisfy the blatancy of the slaughter-house enthusiasts.]