706 T. C. CHAMBERLIN 
once; others, if wisely taken, must necessarily be delayed. Time 
is imperatively demanded for the processes of reorganization. Four 
dynastic empires have fallen into chaos. At their best they were 
little more than forced agglomerations; they were not true nations. 
They were formed of diverse and discordant materials bound 
together by dynastic force, not by spontaneous coherence. Some 
of the people thus agglomerated were held in hated relations by 
a duress little short of slavery, though they were worthy of an 
honored place among nations. The gallant Czecho-Slovaks have 
shown their worthiness in a heroic, not to say dramatic, way. The 
crumbling of these agglomerates leaves a chaos of distraught 
peoples, some of whom are worthy material for reorganization, 
others of whom are but the morbid products of unwholesome con- 
ditions. ‘These morbid products are the greatest threat of the 
crisis as it stands today, a greater threat, indeed, in some respects 
than the dynasties from which they have sprung. Like an eruptive 
fever, this sinister offspring of autocracy has broken out on the 
surface and shown its full malignity, the better to point the need 
of treatment. ‘The disease is likely to run its course, but the danger 
of contagion calls for firm and wise treatment. The war-born 
alliance of nations is the appointed power to deal with this diseased 
state and to rescue the wholesome factors of the defunct empires 
from its deadly ravages. The call to this function is imperative 
and immediate. | 
A period of national reconstruction necessary.—When this deadly 
fever shall have burned out the morbid inheritance from the defunct 
empires, the worthy elements that remain will need time and aid 
in segregating themselves according to the natural laws of national 
evolution, as also in assuming the conditions of normal national 
life and in entering upon the functions of true nationality, before 
they can wisely become parties to the final settlement. The task 
of the associated nations in this process of national reconstruction 
is likely to lie in at least four lines—the preservation of order, the 
establishment of stable governments, the arbitration of contests 
respecting boundaries, and at least preliminary provision for outlets 
and inlets. The last two functions raise issues that must run on 
into the far future and should be influential factors in giving shape 
