The trouble which is implicit in the situation is that nations believe that their glory and welfare are matters of competitive success. It is all too commonly believed that the gain of one nation must mean the loss of another. Consequently, the attitude that is taken on all sides is simply that of intelligent self-interest. Jealousy arises out of such a situation, and jealousy is one of the effective causes of war. One of the most significant factors in the diplomatic history preceding the present war was that of the rivalry of the great European powers for strategic land areas, and for control of the important sea routes of the world. There has been a problem of the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, Constantinople, the North Sea, the Baltic, the China Sea, the Persian Gulf, and so on. Germany, younger than the other nations, has been making a desperate effort to catch up with them, and the present war is in great part the outgrowth of the friction arising out of that effort.[111] But it is encouraging that the glory of nations does not consist exclusively in competitive success, and that there are those who realize it. There are those who see that the true good of all countries may be worked out at the same time. J. S. Mill expressed a high ideal of patriotism when he said: “I believe that the good of no country can be obtained by any means but such as tend to that of all countries, nor ought to be sought otherwise, even if attainable.”[112] This may be matched by a passage from American patriotic eloquence uttered by no less a patriot than Charles Sumner: “I hope to rescue those terms [national glory], so powerful over the minds of men, from the mistaken objects to which they are applied, from deeds of war and the extension of empire, that henceforward they may be attached only to acts of justice and humanity.”[113] The highest good of nations really lies in the use of those things which do not perish in the using and of which there is enough for all. They are the things of the mind and of the spirit. The hope is that the rivalry of nations may be transferred from destructive to constructive pursuits. Much better would be friendly rivalry in the accomplishments of science, art, scholarship, social welfare, and like things.