The Judge of all the
earth is also the Father of all the races, and He will do men good and
not evil.
In view of the events of the last few months, all Americans now realize
as never before the futility of war as a means of settling disputes.
Indeed, it may be doubted whether any war has ever settled any question.
Defeat did not convince the South that they were wrong in their idea of
State rights or slavery. If the South has given up both ideas today it
is because time, events, and social progress have changed their view,
not because the sword convinced them. Bismarck's victory at Versailles
and von Moltke's at Sedan did not settle the dispute with France. To
keep one billion dollars of indemnity Germany must have spent five
billions on forts and armies in the government of Alsace and Lorraine.
Germany's apparent victory simply put Germany's trouble with France out
at compound interest, and left the next generation of Germans to pay
several billions of dollars of accrued debt through hatred. Plainly it
is folly not to reconstitute the map of Europe. The frontier lines of
the geographer should exactly coincide with the racial lines.
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