An international tribunal for Judicial Settlement, which we might call a World Supreme Court, established by the consent and coöperation of the great powers, could gradually erect a body of international law that would be both ideal and real. This is the only way in which international law will ever come to have any actual, positive, binding force. IDEALISM NOT PRACTICALLY POTENT In spite of this fact, there are idealists like Former Secretary Bryan who, while insisting that the United States should set up as a sort of moral mentor for the world, nevertheless contend that we should not increase our armament. They proclaim themselves advocates of peace at any price. This may be correct as a mental attitude, but in these strenuous times, when the most powerful nations are appealing to physical force to adjust questions which might better have been settled by diplomacy, the still small voice of moral suasion, though coming from potentially powerful America, is not likely to be heard, above the din of battle. We can record our protests, of course, but so far as any practical measures to enforce humanity are concerned, we are quite powerless. Our government should either keep out of the mess, and wait for returning reason, after the war is over, to pave the way to universal peace through Judicial Settlement—or, we should immediately proceed to place ourselves in a condition of preparedness for war. GERMAN SOCIALISTS FOR PEACE Utterances of various Socialist leaders and newspapers in Germany in favor of peace have recently filtered out of Germany, and have aroused considerable interest. The German Socialists differ materially from the Socialists of many other countries, in the fact that they constitute a recognized and responsible political party which has a large representation in the German parliament. The idea has widely prevailed that the German people were absolutely united in favor of carrying on the war to the point of “world domination or downfall,” but now we find men and publications of influence deprecating the idea of conquest and annexation of territory, or an invasion of the liberties of other peoples. They declare that the mass of the German people want peace, and that Germany’s military victories place the German government in a position to negotiate peace with justice and honor. Whether these utterances represent any deep or widespread sentiment in Germany, we have no means of knowing. But their publication serves to inspire a hope that the implacable purpose of Germany to carry on a war of conquest has been exaggerated, and that discussion of terms of peace might not be premature even now, if some feasible plan were presented. EDITORIALS