"There are others which are probable, but also problematical, although I
think we fairly may take them into account.
"Will the European nations, in settlement of their differences through
final terms of peace, simply endeavor to restore the old order, drawing
their lines of demarkation very strictly, enacting, for example, higher
tariffs, thinking that along that line will lie the easiest way of
re-establishing national finances?
"If so, the old contentions will be perpetuated. It will be the old
order of things over again.
"We shall again have the spirit of exclusiveness fostered and the old
suspicions bred. The old intense competition of nation with nation for
trade to the exclusion of other nations from the markets of the world
will return with its attendant inefficiency.
"But, on the other hand, the world will be an immense gainer through the
war if it is followed by a broad and rational review of the whole
situation and an adjustment of the map of Europe with due regard to the
ambitions and legitimate economic opportunities and capabilities of the
various peoples.
"This war may be the greatest good the world has ever known if it leaves
Europe in a mental state disposed to Broaden opportunity, to break down
suspicions, to eliminate barriers, and make commerce much freer than it
has been.
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