Even
the failures can not but be accounted useful and an immeasurable
advance over threatened or actual warfare. I am strongly in favor
of continuation of this policy, whenever conditions are such that
there is even a promise that practical and favorable results might
be secured.
In conformity with the principle that a display of reason rather
than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the
intercourse among nations, we have long advocated the peaceful
settlement of disputes by methods of arbitration and have
negotiated many treaties to secure that result. The same
considerations should lead to our adherence to the Permanent Court
of International Justice. Where great principles are involved,
where great movements are under way which promise much for the
welfare of humanity by reason of the very fact that many other
nations have given such movements their actual support, we ought
not to withhold our own sanction because of any small and
inessential difference, but only upon the ground of the most
important and compelling fundamental reasons. We can not barter
away our independence or our sovereignty, but we ought to engage
in no refinements of logic, no sophistries, and no subterfuges, to
argue away the undoubted duty of this country by reason of the
might of its numbers, the power of its resources, and its position
of leadership in the world, actively and comprehensively to
signify its approval and to bear its full share of the
responsibility of a candid and disinterested attempt at the
establishment of a tribunal for the administration of even-handed
justice between nation and nation.
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