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THE AMERICAN-SC AN DIN A VI AN REVIEW 
heard among the loud voices that fill the great world concert. 
One more thing I must be allowed to say. The League of Nations 
is not the only, even though it is the most official, organization which 
has inscribed on its banner: The preservation of peace through justice. 
Before the World War many people who were otherwise more or less 
out of sympathy with the international labor movement nevertheless 
looked to it for help in case of threatened war. The workingmen, it 
was hoped, would never permit a war. 
We know now that this hope was vain. The World War broke 
out with such an elementary violence, and such unscrupulous means 
were used from the beginning to lead or mislead popular opinion, that 
there was no time for reflection or deliberation. But is it so certain that 
the labor sentiment which, after these years of horror, is far more 
averse to war than before would be equally powerless in every situation? 
It is true that the political Internationale is at present weakened 
through the schism which the Bolsheviki have brought into the ranks of 
labor everywhere. But the labor Internationale in Amsterdam is 
stronger than ever. Surely its twenty million workingmen are a force 
to be reckoned with, and the propaganda against war and the threat of 
war is always going on among these masses. The tendency is such that 
in a few years, when the question is asked, Who has done most for the 
cause of peace in the spirit of Alfred Nobel? the answer may quite 
possibly be: The Amsterdam Internationale. 
I wish to close these simple words with a reference to a saying of 
that aged fighter for peace and humanity, James Bryce. In a few 
lines, which may well be regarded as his testament, he declares that 
the obstacles are not insurmountable, but even if they were, we would 
have to grapple with them, for they are in any case much smaller than 
the dangers that will continue to threaten civilization if the present con¬ 
ditions are allowed to go on. The world can not be left to itself where 
it now is; if the nations do not attempt to destroy war, war will destroy 
them. Some kind of united action by all the states that value peace 
is imperatively necessary, and instead of shrinking from the difficulties, 
we must acknowledge that the necessity is present, and go on. 
