if it has even an elementary sense of where safety
lies. With the nations fully armed, and with the
example of successful rapine always in the mind of
Europe to corrupt, to tempt, and to incite, anarchy
is installed in international affairs. In the race
of preparation for the next raid, there can be no
limit, nor was a limit ever reached during the sub-
sequent period of forty-three years which we have
passed in review. All tendencies toward an in-
creasing coöperation among nations, which might
in time have resulted in a general federation, were
decisively blocked. The two Hague Conferences
of 1899 and 1907 are evidence of the maleficent ef-
fect of so conspicuous and complete an act of primal
injustice as that represented by the seizure of Alsace
and Lorraine. Resting on a single basis, that of
force, it could only strengthen the faith in force in
the mind of the victor. European politics, hitherto
characterized by an increasingly liberal and popu-
lar trend, brilliantly exemplified in the process of
Italian unification, were now turned into illiberal,
despotic, and, therefore, anarchical channels by
Bismarck. From the moment when the most
powerful nation of Europe followed with success
an autocratic and military line of policy it was in-
evitable that this policy would dominate the Con-

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