"Do you think a poor, bankrupt, starving, ragged neighbor as desirable
as a healthy, solvent, fat, well-clothed one?" demanded Bismarck.

France attacked Germany in 1870 and found her well-prepared armies
impregnable. Many believe that the Allies will find the German
trench-defences now impregnable. I do not think the Allies will pay
the price in human sacrifice to invade Germany from the west. The
break-up of Germany is more likely to come from her exhaustion and the
weakness of Austria, against which the pressure will be steadily
increased. But what follows the war is most important. If the
victorious or defeated nations are to go on arming, they will go on
warring to the extent that there be left in the world no small nations
and no unfortified area.

If Germany is to grow other navies, and England is still to build two
for one, North and South America must in time have navies, the support
of which will burden the western hemisphere and the progress of
humanity. It ought to be clear that this audacious war can mean
nothing unless it means tremendous progress toward universal peace;
unless it means that nations are to be guided by the same principles,
practices, and morality that should guide individuals.

I know all the arguments for the needfulness of war, and there is not
one of them that will hold water. Wars exist for the same reason that
they formerly existed with individuals, or between cities, or
states,--because there was no organization regulating the relations
between individuals, cities, and states. Wars exist between nations
to-day because there is no organization regulating international
relations.