The actual catastrophe proves that secret negotiations like those
habitually conducted on behalf of the "concert of Europe," and alliances
between selected nations, the terms of which are secret, or at any rate
not publicly stated, cannot avert in the long run outrageous war, but
can only produce postponements of war, or short truces. Free
institutions, like those of the United States, take the public into
confidence, because all important movements of the Government must rest
on popular desires, needs, and volitions. Autocratic institutions have
no such necessity for publicity. This Government secrecy as to motives,
plans, and purposes must often be maintained by disregarding truth, fair
dealing, and honorable obligations, in order that, when the appeal to
force comes, one Government may secure the advantage of taking the other
by surprise. Duplicity during peace and the breaking of treaties during
war come to be regarded as obvious military necessities.
The second great evil under which certain large nations of
Europe--notably Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary--have long suffered
and still suffer is the permanent national Executive, independent of
popular control through representative bodies, holding strong views
about rights of birth and religious sanctions of its authority, and
really controlling the national forces through some small council and a
strong bureaucracy.
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