Fighting For Peace | Page 2

faith.
There is nothing secret or mysterious about the American diplomatic
service, so far as I have known it. Of course there are times when, like
every other honestly and properly conducted affair, it does not seek
publicity in the newspapers. That, I should suppose, must always be a
fundamental condition of frank and free conversation between
governments as between gentlemen. There is a certain kind of reserve
which is essential to candor.
But American diplomacy has no picturesque meetings at midnight in
the gloom of lonely forests; no confabulations in black cellars with
bands of hireling desperadoes waiting to carry out its decrees; no
disguises, no masks, no dark lanterns--nothing half so exciting and
melodramatic. On the contrary, it is amazingly plain and
straightforward, with plenty of hard work, but always open and
aboveboard. That is the rule for the diplomatic service of the United
States.
Its chief and constant aims are known to all men. First, to maintain
American principles and interests, and to get a fair showing for them in
the world. Second, to preserve and advance friendly relations and
intercourse with the particular nation to which the diplomat is sent.
Third, to promote a just and firm and free peace throughout the world,
so that democracy everywhere may live without fear.
It was the last of these three aims that acted as the main motive in my
acceptance of President Wilson's invitation to go out as American
Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in the summer of 1913. It

was pleasant, of course, to return for a while to the land from which my
ancestors came so long ago. It seemed also that some useful and
interesting work might be done to forward the common interests and
ideals of the United States and the Netherlands--that brave,
liberty-loving nation from which our country learned and received so
much in its beginnings--and in particular that there might be
opportunity for co-operation in the Far East, where the Dutch East
Indies and the Philippines are next-door neighbors. But the chief thing
that drew me to Holland was the desire to promote the great work of
peace which had been begun by the International Peace Conferences at
The Hague. This indeed was what the President especially charged me
to do.
Two conferences had already been held and had accomplished much.
But their work was incomplete. It lacked firm attachments and
sanctions. It was left to a certain extent "hanging in the air." It needed
just those things which the American delegates to the Conference of
1907 had advocated--the establishment of a Permanent Court of
Arbitral Justice; an International Prize Court; an agreement for the
protection of private property at sea in time of war; the further study
and discussion of the question of the reduction of armaments by the
nations; and so on. Most of these were the things of which Germany
had hitherto prevented the attainment. A third International Peace
Conference was necessary to secure and carry on the work of the first
two. The President told me to do all that I properly could to forward the
assembling of that conference in the Palace of Peace at the earliest
possible date.
So I went to Holland as an envoy of the world-peace founded on justice
which is America's great desire. For that cause I worked and strove. Of
that cause I am still a devoted follower and servant. I am working for it
now, but with a difference. It is evident that we cannot maintain that
cause, as the world stands to-day, without fighting for it. And after it is
won, it will need protection. It must be Peace with Righteousness and
Power.
The following chapters narrate some of the experiences--things seen

and heard and studied during my years of service abroad--which have
forced me to this conclusion. To the articles which were published in
Scribner's Magazine for September, October, and November, 1917, I
have added two short chapters on the cause of the war and the kind of
peace America is fighting for.
The third peace conference is more needed, more desirable, than ever.
But we shall never get it until the military forces of Germany are
broken, and the predatory Potsdam gang which rules them is brought
low.
Chapter I
FAIR-WEATHER AND STORM SIGNS
I
It takes a New England farmer to note and interpret the signs of coming
storm on a beautiful and sunny day. Perhaps his power is due in part to
natural sharpness, and in part to the innate pessimism of the Yankee
mind, which considers the fact that the hay is cut but not yet in the barn
a sufficient reason for believing that "it'll prob'ly rain t'morrow."
I must confess that I had not enough of either of these qualities to be
observant