If the issue should be raised in the near future, the American people would be certain to shirk it; and they would, perhaps, have some reason for a failure to understand their obligation, because the course of European political development has not as yet been such as to raise the question in a decisive form.

All one can say as to the existing situation is that there are certain Powers which have very much more to lose than they have to gain by war.

These Powers are no longer small states like Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland, but populous and powerful states like Great Britain, Italy, and France.

It may be one or it may be many generations before the issue of a peaceful or a warlike organization is decisively raised.

When, if ever, it is decisively raised, the system of public law, under which any organization would have to take place, may not be one which the United States could accept.
But the point is that, whenever and however it is raised, the American national leaders should confront it with a sound, well-informed, and positive conception of the American national interest rather than a negative and ignorant conception.