Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/221



themselves, great and small, including particu- larly those areas so immensely important Rus- sia and China would willingly look to America for leadership and guidance, with complete trust and confidence. When this is fully realized, we shall also be able to judge how vitally what Amer- ica stands for in the world will be strengthened by a constant adherence to open and straightfor- ward methods in international intercourse.

But America herself, it will be said, cannot fun- damentally change the spirit that animates for- eign policies, and bring about the universal use of honest and open practices. We are living un- der a system which is the result of historic forces that have not yet fully spent themselves and which put the potential enmity among nations in the foreground.

I do not believe that it is necessary to shut our eyes to reality and to seek recourse in a Utopian policy, in order to escape the menace inherent in current international practices. If America will only not fall in line with the absolutist tradition in diplomacy, but will emphasize at all times, with all her influence, those principles of international conduct which our natural freedom from entan- glements has permitted us to develop as of actual experience, America will contribute in a most po-