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LL the officially avowed aims of the war are moral. First. To overpower and destroy the sinister and immoral forces of autocracy and militarism as seen in the German Imperial Government, is surely a moral aim. On this question the public opinion of the civilized world is united. The hydraheaded monster must be slain. If the people of certain small nations cannot openly join in the conflict, their hearts beat with the Allies and they long to see the forces of freedom and truth prevail. When the German Kaiser at the opening of the war declared: "The spirit of the Lord has descended upon me. I am the instrument of the Almighty," we saw the blasphemous inflation of mind and the insane conceit which dominated him.

When on another occasion he declared that "the triumph of Greater Germany which some day must dominate all Europe is the single end for which we are fighting," we saw the naked truth in regard to Germany's aim and purpose and knew that all the talk about defending the

Fatherland was a tissue of lies.

So we see twenty nations large and small, united under one command, determined to conquer this demon of greed and lust or die in the attempt. It is agreed that to live either as a nation or as an individual and be under the heel of the Teuton is worse than death.

The greatest of all moral aims is to preserve the world from this tyranny.

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Second. The next moral aim is to provide a substitute for war. Much of international law is a series of rules for the conduct of war, which means that war has been a legalized means of settling disputes between nations. Not that it does settle them. Nobody claims that; but if obeyed, war strained, its horrors are curtailed, neutrals are protected, noncombatants are unmolested, their property is sacred. If goods are requisitioned they are paid for. Such has been the case in most of the wars of the last hundred years. But in this great onslaught upon mankind, this hideous and unprovoked massacre of the innocents, all the restraints of international law are torn in shreds, treaties are violated, public and private honor are treated with contempt and Hell itself appears attractive when compared with warfare as practised by the Huns. Therefore, says the voice of humanity, war must cease. It is

archaic and barbaric at best. In the light of present events it is seen to be worse than General Sherman said it was. It must be destroyed. Militarism must be ground to dust. To do this, and to see justice in its place is the second great moral aim.

If the two great conferences at

the Hague did nothing else, they showed that the majority of states were ready to vote for an International Court. Such a court, when cases arise between states and individuals, can try them according to the laws of evidence. Established beside the Hague tribunal, it becomes the first long step toward permanent peace. It is the very cornerstone of a League of Nations and without it there can be no league of value or permanence. The moral values wrapped up in a World Court are enormous. The door to such a court once open, with its machinery in working order, all the nations will soon learn the way thitherward. Will it be necessary to enforce the decree of the Court? Probably not. The forty-eight sovereign states that comprise the American Union have bowed to the majesty of the Supreme Court. Let us say that the force is there but its aid has never been invoked. So a court of nations will have an almost invincible "concert of opinion" working in its favor and a "major force of mankind" stands ready to intervene if

necessary.

It is proper to remark that the great moral aim, the arrangement of international relations in accordance with justice, can never be the vogue as long as German militarism is in the ascendant. Neither can any other high moral aim. Justice is the very opposite of Prussianism and stands directly athwart the path of world domination.

Third. There is another moral aim which can be no better ex

pressed than by the word Honesty. There must be honest diplomacy and truthfulness in all negotiations between nations. Here again public opinion will function strongly after the war, for the world will be full of anger and indignation against all who try to deceive. Spies and intriguers will be given short shrift.

Much has been written against secret diplomacy. It is not yet clear that all negotiations between nations can be, in the first instance, public. Even in a peace conference it may be necessary to have an executive session. The main thing is to have honest men in foreign offices and honest as well as representative men selected for the peace conference. Matters will come up affecting two or more nations which the angels in heaven could not decide to the satis

faction of those nations. And yet they must be decided and the question closed. All sides should be heard and every claim carefully weighed without partiality or prejudice, but it is often better that some kinds of legislation and some decisions should be made without the intrusion of popular clamor or the special pleading of a more or less partisan press. As in war some ends must be reached without publicity, so in peace honest decisions must be reached by the proper agents without public appeal.

When a treaty is once negotiated and signed it should be made public. If it should appear as time passes that injustice has been done to any nation, steps should be taken to revise it. If the world becomes more

honest, the query will be what is just? Not what can I make out of it? The Treaty of Berlin in 1878 and the Treaty of Bucharest in 1912 were both unfair and unjust but the Great Powers which dominated the conference were not, in either case, honest enough to follow strictly in the line of justice.

In this great war, nations are viewing themselves as in a mirror. Let us hope that what they see there will act as a powerful corrective of conduct and character.

A fourth moral aim should be to apply the golden rule and the ten commandments in the economic field. Pure competition has been tried and has failed. Nations may be rivals but cannot try to cut each other's throats. That nations need each other is too trite a saying to be repeated. Great divergence in climate, in products and in industrial competency favors commercial activity and opens a wide field for enterprise, initiative and inventive talent. Shall

there be after the war the open door, freer trade, with freedom upon all seas and waterways? Shall the states of the world recognize each other as neighbors who are interdependent, each contributing to the welfare of the other? Or are they to resume. the policy of economic hostility? Are they to cooperate for their own good and the welfare of the world or are they to go on plotting and scheming, guarding their economic secrets and searching for the most vulnerable places in which to wage economic war? There can be but one answer to these questions. With militarism

This leads naturally to a fifth moral aim, viz., a new internationalism. The aim already described, if accomplished, potentially ensures this aim. There must be a partial surrender of those ambitions which nationality, in its blind seeking for self-determination, has inhibited. There was a time in history when the clan or the tribe was the unit. Gradually through conquest and exploration the unit became the nation. Now, in the new order which we trust the war will usher in, the whole world is the true unit. The immoral aim of national expansion and self-sufficiency gives way to the moral aim of the brotherhood of man and the solidarity of human interests. course custom, traditions and military ambitions are all opposed to this ideal. But it is on the way. Christianity is a victorious faith and opens many new vistas of hope and expectation. The Atlantic cable. was laid by the faith of one man; the new internationalism is assured by the faith of many.

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This new and peace-giving doctrine is being taught in American schools and will be taught, we trust, in all schools the world over. For

the idea must germinate in the young and grow up with them. A Christianity whose mission is to save the world must be, and will be so preached as to include super-nationality, which finds its head not in a boasting and sacrilegious Kaiser, but in a just and omnipotent God.

The sixth and last great aim which I will mention is freedom,freedom of all peoples, those who toil with their hands as well as those who will toil with their brains. We long to see political freedom, industrial freedom and religious freedom. This is certainly a large contract. Germany will so regard it and will fight to the death to preserve her power to oppress and tyrannize over people as she pleases. But the conscience and will of the world are fully aroused. The army of labor, while loyal to the war, demands that the nations which have shown such ability to organize for war, shall exercise the same ability in organizing

CZECH NATIONAL HYMN IN AUSTRIAN

TRENCHES

Signor Orlando, Premier of Italy, addressing in Rome the leaders of the recent Congress of Oppressed Nationalities, told the following anecdote related to him upon his visit to the Italian front:

"It was night, dark and gloomy, and our own and the enemy's first lines were plunged in that silence full of mystery and menace which broods over two armies confronting each other. In the Austrian advance posts there were at one point many Czechs. Suddenly in the darkness someone began to sing. Homer alone could have described the solemnity of the moment. It was the Czech national hymn. And then the sentinels were seen to change their positions, the soldiers in the trenches rose to their feet and

for peace so that there may be more stability and security in the economic world and more homes made happy by reason of needs well satisfied.

Small nations are to be reestablished, protected and made free. Nothing short of this will satisfy President Wilson. No superficial peace will be entertained, for he has said "the wrongs against which we now array ourselves are not common wrongs; they reach out to the very roots of human life."

Such human tolerance and fair

play as we battle for is a moral aim of generic force, comprehending all other aims. It is the united appeal of a myriad of human souls who have been bartered, trodden down, deported, outraged and tortured. Human freedom is the grand transfiguring aim which shall make the earth to put on the garments of beauty, of justice and of peace.

stood bareheaded till the singer ended." Nothing more simple or more profound; in the night one felt the breath of epic poetry. These men, with an enemy in front, who might, in ignorance, fire upon them, with another worse enemy behind them, who at the sight of so bold and magnificent an assertion of national feeling might well fire on them treacherously from the rear-these men feared neither open nor hidden danger, and at the voice of the Fatherland sprang to their feet. Through all such incidents I see erect and shining a Cross which makes all tortures and sufferings a Communion Sacrament, and which stands for sacrifice and death. But on this Cross is inscribed the radiant prophecy of hope and faith: In hoc signo vinces. And by this sign, gentlemen, ye shall conquer."