The Aims of Labor

ices of the present are a blood-offering for the security of the future, and a grave responsibility will rest upon the representatives of the several nations concerned if, from any unworthy motive, they fail to arrange such a peace settlement as will afford the peoples of the world a reasonable prospect of security, freedom, and progress. If such a peace is not realised it will mean that the most vital object of our participation in the present grievous and devastating conflict has not been attained, and that the military failure of Germany has not proved to be a victory for the Allied cause. It is imperative that the workers of the world should realise that they are too intimately concerned in the proper adjustment of all the great war issues to allow them to be settled in any other than a just and honourable way. Moreover, immense problems of political, social, and material reconstruction will present themselves for solution immediately peace is declared. These problems will not be confined to any one nation, but will be international in char ' acter, scope, and effect; and, if they are to be solved successfully, joint action and close co-operation . between all peoples will be essential. The defeat of aggressive Militarism and Autocracy will not dispose of all the great difficulties confronting Democracy ; it will only mean, in the event of an honourable and lasting peace, that the peoples will be free to concentrate all their energies, their creative an...