6. The dangers of re-emergence of the nationalist spirit. Intense nationalism was one of the prime movers in bringing about this war and no nation has been exempt from this spirit of national pride and from a nationalistic, separative outlook. Selfish interests have controlled the reasons for which every nation has entered this war; individual security has prompted the entry of even the most enlightened democratic nations. That to these selfish incentives they have added world need and the love of freedom is true and serves [373] to balance, though not offset, the selfish motives; that the instinct of self-preservation gave them no alternative is likewise true, but the fact remains that there would have been no war if the democratic nations had been the determining factor. That in itself gives rise to questions. Why did the powerful democracies, in the last analysis, permit this war when, united and banded together from the start, they might have arrested it in the initial stages? Also, given the existent aggressor nations, collective self-interest forced the democracies into combat, and yet this same self-interest should have made them take the steps which would have guaranteed the peace. National types, individual national interests, national cultures and national civilizations exist side by side, but instead of being regarded as contributory to one integrated whole, they have been zealously competitive and have been regarded as the peculiar and distinctive prerogatives of some one nation and as existing for the sole good of that nation. In the future, the contributory factor in life must be emphasized and developed, and the good of the entire family of nations must be substituted for the good of one nation or a group of nations. The education of the public in this ideal necessitates no loss of national identity or individual culture. That must remain and be developed to its highest spiritual goal for the enriching and the collective good of all. It is only the motive for the emphasis of any specific racial and national culture which must be changed.

The family of nations, viewed as a unit, its correct and proper interrelation, and the shouldering of responsibility for the one, or for the weak, must be the realized goal of all national enterprise; the resources of the entire planet must be shared collectively and it must be increasingly realized that the products of the earth, the gifts of the soil, the intellectual heritage of the nations, belong to the whole of mankind and to no one nation exclusively. No nation liveth unto itself, any more than any individual can happily so live; the nation or individual who attempts so to do must [374] inevitably perish off the face of the earth. All nations have made this selfish attempt, as history, ancient and modern, goes to prove. Their tradition, their resources, their national genius, their past history, their mineral and agricultural products, their strategic position on the planet, have been used in past centuries for the benefit of the nation claiming them; they have been exploited for the increase of the power of that nation at the expense of the suffering of others. This is the sin which Germany is today committing, aided by Japan and feebly followed by Italy. Power politics, the exploitation of the weak, aggression, economic selfishness, ideals based on pure commercialism and materialistic and territorial goals color all the past history of mankind in both hemispheres, and have laid the foundation for the present war.