Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/195



foreign affairs has retained the character of abso- lutism. It is a superstition, in the picturesque sense of that word used by Lowell, when he de- fines it as "something left standing over from one of the world's witenagemotes to the other." In this case, indeed the most recent witenagemote approached the question and proposed a step in advance towards its solution. But the difficulty still persists.

In its relations with other states, the state is considered to be absolute, not bound by any laws, responsible only for its own security, welfare and progressing influence. The struggle for political power still exists among states, in essentially the same keenness and rigidity with which it appeared to the eyes of Machiavelli. The importance of world-wide human relationships, and of interna- tional cooperation in scientific and economic life, has indeed been brought forth and given its place in the public mind; but because of the manner in which the conduct of international affairs is actually handled, the feeling thus generated does not have much chance to influence action at crit- ical times, when the people are startled and ex- cited by the sudden revelation of dangers, which awaken in them all the bitter feelings engendered by the past struggles of mankind.