Page:The Book of the Homeless (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916).djvu/235

 engage in it who does not fear great loss or hope great gain. Nations will always be swayed by the influences which are now swaying Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania. No desire of justice would lead those countries to join us. I doubt if it would justify their rulers in declaring war."

Perhaps that is another way of saying that no country will get into the war that dares to stay out. Nations, especially democratic nations, are not much like men. They may not say, "I will fight for you; I will spend my strength and treasure for you; I will die for you and your cause." Individuals may feel, say, do all that, but individuals are not nations. A nation says: "The laws of my being must determine my conduct. I must go my own gait according to those rules. But if war stretches across my path I need not turn out for it."

How far this war has still to go, no one knows. It may still, any day, stretch across the path of the United States, so that the natural drive of our procedure will carry us into it.