1915] My Own Attitude 



on the part of the Pope, Mr. Wilson, and groups of 

 private individuals with whom I became more or less 

 allied. Therefore, in view of the gravity of the situa- 

 tions which followed, I feel it a duty to myself and 

 my friends to try to make my own relations and 

 reactions as clear as possible. "A literary work," 

 says Dr. Guerard, "is a dialogue between the author 

 and the public, in which the former more or less 

 frankly answers his invisible questioner." 



War I hold to be in itself and under all circum- 

 stances abhorrent demoralizing and ruinous to 

 every legitimate interest of humanity. 1 It was, how- Neutrality 

 ever, evident that the United States could not indef- im P ssible 

 initely retain its unique position. This country, more- 

 over, though officially neutral until April 2, 1917, was 

 never so in spirit and hardly so in policy. Complete 

 neutrality, indeed, soon became wholly impossible, 

 nor do I believe it was reasonable to expect it. When 

 overt acts shock the moral sense, there is no obliga- 

 tion on man or nation to be truly neutral. 



But hitherto we had preserved our unity and democ- Secret 

 racy by isolation from the hidden strife known as the tr a ^ ie o s thfr 

 "Balance of Power." The conquest of Tripoli and iniquities 

 Morocco, France's pact with the Tsar, the long array 

 of secret deals dignified when convenient by the name 



1 1 accept the words of Thucydides as quoted by Professor Gilbert Murray: 

 "One of the worst things about war is that it takes away your freedom and 

 puts you in a region of necessity. And in that region you become accustomed 

 to the doing of ugly impossible things." 



A similar idea has been more fully expressed by Charles F. Dole: "It is 

 because war goes so far down the road to Avernus, because it forgets, ignores, 

 and destroys the highest values of life, because it bids men affront and deny 

 their good will and sacrifices the fruits of the spirit to hatred, that we abhor war." 



And again, still more explicit, is the indictment of Professor George San- 

 tayana of Harvard: "It is war that wastes a nation's wealth, chokes its industries, 

 kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adven- 

 turers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation." 



673 3 



