WORLD-ORGANIZATION AFTER THE WORLD-WAR— 
AN OMNINATIONAL CONFEDERATION 
T. C. CHAMBERLIN 
University of Chicago 
It seems quite needless to say that the world-war now in its 
closing stages forms a crucial epoch in world-history, that its origin 
was closely linked with events running far back into the past, or 
that the outcome will vitally condition the future. It seems no less 
needless to say that the whole history of the earth, in its broadest 
sense and in its utmost reaches, has been closely linked as a co- 
ordinated seriés of events and will remain so linked far into the 
future; or that the material factors in this world-history are inti- 
mately intertwined with those that condition life as well as mental 
and moral issues. And so all episodes in world-events, however 
special they may seem on the surface, are to be viewed as factors 
of a co-ordinated unit in which each event plays its part in the 
composite whole. 
And yet with little doubt every reader, at first flush of thought, 
will feel a touch of surprise that a discussion of world-organization 
after a world-war is given a place in a magazine devoted to earth- 
science, however broadly that periodical may try to cultivate its 
field. But in the face of this, and with due deliberation, a medium 
has been chosen in which discussions of former crucial stages of 
earth-history are wont to appear and a scientific atmosphere 
habitually invoked to control the spirit, the purpose, and the 
method of discussion. 
The European balance of power and the European concert as peace 
devices.—Before the war, the control of international affairs in 
Europe was sought by means of a “balance of power,’ with a 
Triple Alliance in one pan of the scales and the Entente Powers 
in the other. The periodic disturbances of this balance and the 
recurring threats of discord in the ‘‘concert of powers” left the 
way open for sinister underplays; a series of wars arose in spite 
7O1 
