THE TVORLD STATE 153 



be more definitely defined; more and more disputes will be settled by 

 arbitration in the court of the world. Such a state will receive the 

 undivided support of the commercial interests of the world, for com- 

 merce thrives best in times of peace. Since this is an industrial and 

 commercial age, the business interests ought and will support a move- 

 ment to bring about and preserve peace. The practical or mechanical 

 obstacles to the establishment of a world state are fewer now than ever 

 before; in fact, one might almost say they do not exist any longer. 

 By means of past inventions and discoveries the world is more closely 

 united, more thoroughly bound together, than ever before. Steam rail- 

 ways, steamships, the telegraph, telephone and wireless telegraphy and 

 scores of other inventions have annihilated distance. The formation 

 of a world union is easier than ever before. 



6. Obstacles to the Success of the Movement. — Unfortunately such 

 a movement as we are considering will have a number of serious ob- 

 stacles to meet and overcome. Perhaps the most potent hindrance to 

 the speedy establishment of a world state will be the existence of 

 strong national feelings, the antipathy of the nations of Europe and 

 the local patriotism on the American continent. It will be a long 

 time before race hatred and national enmity will be allayed; it will 

 probably be centuries before ' jingoism ' and local patriotism will be 

 supplanted by reason and a cosmopolitan spirit. But in connection 

 with this obstacle, one ought to note that a great amount of this 

 cosmopolitan spirit does exist now and will continue to grow. Happily 

 this spirit or feeling is not to be found solely among the upper and 

 educated classes, but among the working classes also, and especially 

 among the working classes of Europe. With them, however, the feel- 

 ing is not necessarily an end in view, but a concomitant of their great 

 struggle. The workingmen of Europe, organized under the banners 

 of labor organizations and socialism, declare that their fight against 

 capitalism is an international struggle, that the capitalistic regime is 

 omnipresent and everywhere opposed to labor. 



Another obstacle to the establishment of a world state is the hostile 

 attitude of the monarchical governments o"f Europe. Most of them 

 are more or less jealous of their sovereignty and hate to have it cur- 

 tailed in any way; they scorn being forced to arbitrate their disputes 

 instead of fighting them out. This is not a mere assertion and can 

 best be illustrated by the attitude of Germany. At the Hague Peace 

 Conference in 1899, the German delegates declared that arbitration 

 was incompatible with the divine right of kings to rule. The Emperor 

 William has openly manifested his opposition to a permanent court of 

 arbitration. When it was proposed that the German- Venezuelan ques- 

 tion be submitted to the Hague Court, William II. proposed that the 

 matter be left to President Poosevelt as arbitrator. But Roosevelt de- 



