But there are degrees in wrong, and sometimes,
by comparison, wrong becomes almost right.
The armed peace, the peace of guns and dreadnoughts and sabre rattlers,
has come to its predestined end. Its armaments were made for war. Its
war makers and war traders, the Pan-Germanists in the lead, have done
their worst for the last nine years. They have been foiled time after
time, but they have their way at last. Their last and most fatal weapon
was the ultimatum. If Servia had not given them their chance they would
have found their pretext somewhere else. When a nation or a continent
prepares for war it will get it soon or later. To prepare for war is to
breed a host of men who have no other business, and another host who
find their profits in blood.
When the war began it had very little meaning. It was the third Balkan
war, brought on, as the others were, by intrigues of rival despotisms.
The peoples of Europe do not hate each other. The springs of war come
from a few men impelled by greed and glory. Diplomacy in Europe has been
for years the cover for robbery in Asia or Africa. Of all the nations
concerned not one had any wish to fight, and Belgium alone could fight
with clean hands.
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