I can’t believe what I am hearing. Is it you, William White, speaking? You who, for twenty years, have stood against _all_ war! WHITE Yes. HILDA And now when the test comes you are going to lend yourself to it! You of all men! WHITE Hilda, dear; I didn’t expect you to accept it easily; but I think I can make you see if you will let me. HILDA (_Poignantly_) If I will _let_ you! Why, Will, I must understand; I must. WHITE Perhaps it will be difficult at first--with your standards. HILDA But my standards were yours, Will. You gave them to me. You taught me. You took a young girl who loved you. You showed her the truth, and she followed you and has followed you gladly through hard years of struggle and poverty because of those ideals. And now you talk of _my_ standards! Will, don’t you see, I _must_ understand? WHITE Dear, standards are relative things; they differ with circumstance. HILDA Have your ideals only been old clothes you change to suit the weather? WHITE It’s the end we must keep in mind. _I_ haven’t changed or compromised one bit in that. I’m working in changed conditions, that’s all; working with all my heart to do away with all war. HILDA By fighting one? WHITE (_With eloquence_) Yes. Because it is necessary. I’ve come to see we can’t argue war out of the world with words. We’ve got to beat it out of the world. It can’t be done with our hands lifted up in prayer; it can only be done with iron hands crushing it down. War is the mood of the world. Well, I’m going to fight in my fashion. And when it is over I’m going to keep on fighting; for the next war will be greater than this. It will be economic revolution. It will be the war of capital and labor. And I mean to be ready. HILDA (_Listening incredulously_) And to get ready you are willing to link arms now with Senator Bough--a man you once called the lackey of Wall Street--a man who has always opposed every democratic principle.... WHITE Yes. Don’t you see the Government is beginning to realize they can’t do without us? Don’t you see my appointment is an acknowledgment of the rising tide of radicalism in the world? Don’t you see, with the prestige that will come to me from this appointment, I will have greater power after the war; power to bring about the realization of all our dreams; power to demand--even at the Peace table itself, perhaps--that all wars must end? HILDA Do you actually believe you will have any power with your _own_ people when you have compromised them for a temporary expediency? WHITE (_With a gesture_) The leader must be wiser than the people who follow. HILDA So, contempt for your people is the first thing your new power has brought you! (_He makes a gesture of denial._) You feel you are above them--not of them. Do you believe for a moment that Senator Bough has anything but contempt for you, too? WHITE (_Confidently_) He needs me. HILDA