Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-26

of the preparation for the postwar re-
adjustment. Those of US who watched
at first hand Europe's sacrifice in the
first two years of the conflict and then
came back to find our own countrymen
sleek, fat and well contented. realized
how necessary II was to drive home the
real price and meaning of the war. II
was felt America needed the lash and
the agony to give her a spiritual re-
birth; that, without such a baptism. she
would not only lose. all sense of idealis-
tic proportion but pay. as have init
mated earlier in this article, very
costly price in addition.
The time has come when she faces the
fiery ordeal and whatever the cost she
will come forth from the travail with
a finer sense of her patriotic obligation
and a larger understanding OF lie.
itself. Citizenship will be more than a
phrase.
This is why-and no detail of Ameri-
cas- part in the future is more impor-
tant-the United States will be looked
to by the smaller nations of the world
The war. ostensibly, began as a de-
Tense of the small peoples-it will not
have achieved its larger purpose unless
the safeguard of their liberties is made
permanent. Having departed from our
world aloofness. we will have to assume
every responsibility that goes with in
ternational power. Not the least part
of this will bea contribution to what
would call the police force of the
world.
There is still another part that Ameri-
ca can and doubtless will play in peace.
/ mean her share in the Limitation of
armament. There Is a widespread feel
ing in Europe that one cause of the
war. aside from Germany's overmaster-
ing commercial ambition, was the con-
test in warship-building. The kaiser's
challenge in his favorite outdoor sport
became a very costly one to take up
England found this out. 1t was like the
competition between the builders of
skyscrapers in New York. Every time
an insurance company or an industrial
corporation put up a tower, the nearest
competitor went them ten or fifteen
stories better. So with armies and
navies..
=
When this war is over it will be
found that there will be a very few
great Industrial states capable of pro-
ducing modern war equipment. Indus
trial output will be too eager to gear
itself up to reconstruction and rehabili-
tation. Here is where America can have
one large and definite part in solving
the problems of future wars. because she
can restrict and insist on q kindred re-
striction elsewhere on ornaments. In
other words, since war has become a
contest between machinery, the nation
with the. biggest machine power will
have an enormous say in the great con-
ficts of the future, IL there are any
She can make or uumake wars.
Regardless of when the war ends
America will loom large in the after
math. I got hint of what European
craftsmanship thought of our own re-
sponsibilities on a certain occasion
when I went to see LLOYD George. The
little Welsh wizard had succeeded
Kitchener as minister of war; the one
time anti-imperalist was enthroned in
the seat of b mighty military power. II
was another one of the contrasts in his
whole life of dramatic contrasts.
We talked about many things, blu,
chief among them America and the
war. It was just before our last presi-
Dental election. and the future prime
minister was wondering who would be