“Fine!” he said. “That devil will never again vomit out death upon men crouching low in ditches--fifteen miles away. Never again will it smash through the roofs of farmhouses where people desired to live in peace, or bash big holes in little old churches where folk worshipped through the centuries--a loving God!... Sonny, this damned thing is symbolical. Its overthrow means the downfall of all the machinery of slaughter which has been accumulated by civilised peoples afraid of each other. In a little while, if there’s any sense in humanity after this fearful lesson, we shall put all our guns on to the scrap-heap, and start a new era of reasonable intercourse between the peoples of the world.” “Doctor,” I answered, “there’s a mighty big If in that long sentence of yours.” He blinked at me with beads of mist on his lashes. “Don’t you go wet-blanketing my faith in a step-up for the human race! During the next few months we’re going to rearrange life. We are going to give Fear the knock-out blow.... It was Fear that was the cause of all this horrible insanity and all this need of sacrifice. Germany was afraid of being ‘hemmed in’ by England, France and Russia. Fear, more than the lust of power, was at the back of her big armies. France was afraid of Germany trampling over her frontiers again. Russian Czardom was afraid of Revolution within her own borders and looked to war as a safety-valve. England was afraid of the German Navy, and afraid of Germans at Calais and Dunkirk. All the little Powers were afraid of the Big Powers, and made their beastly little alliances as a life insurance against the time when they would be dragged into the dog-fight. Now, with the German bogey killed--the most formidable and frightful bogey--Austria disintegrated, Russia groping her way with bloodshot eyes to a new democracy, a complete set of Fears has been removed. The spirits of the peoples will be uplifted, the darkness of fear having passed from them. We are coming out into the broad sunlight of sanity, and mankind will march to better conquests than those of conscript armies. Thank God, the United States of America (and don’t you forget it!) will play a part in this advance to another New World.”