Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/236



that risk is diminished and tends to disappear as it is distributed over greater and greater num- bers. Under our present political system na- tions are carrying a tremendous risk in interna- tional affairs they are risking their wealth, the lives of their citizens, their own very existence. The responsibility for bearing these risks and for arranging the conditions of safety is now too narrowly centralized. It is an elementary de- mand of safety that it should be more widely dis- tributed, that a larger number of competent and representative minds should take part in carrying this burden. And they should at all points be supported by a well-informed public opinion throughout the nation.

But there is a condition that lies still deeper. The popular psychology cultivated under the nar- row aims of nationalism has exhausted itself in international matters in dislike and hatred of everything alien and of all that lies beyond the national pale. Such a state of mind is ever ready to act the bull to any red rag of newspaper sensa- tionalism. So, the inside managers of diplomatic affairs may still say with some justification, "Open discussion would too much excite the pub- lic mind." This fundamental condition cannot be suddenly purged of all its potency for evil.