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218 THE FRUITS OF VICTORY

BY WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

(Ex-President of the United States, President of the League to Enforce Peace)

is ended. It will change the map of Europe and the world. As the Christian Era divides the ancient and the modern world, so this war will be a new point of departure in human history.

The victory clinches the moral responsibility of nations and of peoples. It exalts right over might and makes right might. Peoples and leaders may frequently fall away from the ideal of national morality set by this war. But never again will either avow that there is no morality for nations.

The war ends the power of monarchs and dynasties, the divinity that has hedged a king is gone forever. Peoples are to rule.

The war has made the World democratic. Whether it has made it safe depends on the peoples who govern. Democracy is a great boon. It makes for the happiness and welfare of the people, but its best results are only available to a people practiced in self-restraint, intelligent enough to know their own real interest and