international relations, should be damned forever by the vote of the
American people.

Further, it is our duty to have done with all dream of empire building.
It is not for us: let us abandon it frankly and forever. Those
dependencies which have come to us through the accidents of our history
should be granted autonomous self-government at the earliest moment at
which they can safely take it over--which does not necessarily mean
to-morrow. If they remain affiliated with us it should be only through
the voluntary choice of the majority of the population dwelling upon
them.

It is, moreover, our duty to lead the world in the effort to form a
federation of the nations and establish the aforesaid world court of
justice, with the international military and naval police to enforce its
judgments.

More than this is demanded: on the basis of the challenge of our
democracy, it is our duty to rise to the point of placing justice higher
than commercial interest. It is a hard demand; but, with the latent
idealism in our American life, surely we can rise to it. For instance,
the vexed puzzle of the tariff will never be justly and permanently
settled, till it is settled primarily as a problem of moral
international relationship, and not as one merely of economic interest
and advantage.

For example, a tariff wall between the United States and Canada is as
preposterous an absurdity as would be a long line of bristling
fortifications along the three thousand and more miles of international
boundary. We are not protecting ourselves from slave labor over there.