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APPLIED ETHICS

WILLIAM BELDEN NOBLE LECTURE
1910
APPLIED ETHICS

BEING ONE OF THE

WILLIAM BELDEN NOBLE
LECTURES FOR 1910

BY

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

LL.D., D.C.L., L.H.D., Pu.D.

 

CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1911

w
A495519
COPYRIGHT, I9QII
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
THE WILLIAM BELDEN NOBLE
LECTURES

Tus Lectureship was constituted a per-
petual foundation in Harvard University in
1898, as a memorial to the late Wittiam
BELDEN Nose of Washington, D.C. (Har-
vard, 1885). The deed of gift provides that
the lectures shall be not less than six in
number, that they shall be delivered annu-
ally, and, if convenient, in the Phillips Brooks
House, during the season of Advent. Each
lecturer shall have ample notice of his ap-
pointment, and the publication of each
course of lectures is required. The purpose
of the Lectureship will be further seen in
the following citation from the deed of gift
by which it was established : —

“The object of the founder of the Lectures is to
continue the mission of William Belden Noble, whose
supreme desire it was to extend the influence of Jesus

as the way, the truth, and the life; to make known
the meaning of the words of Jesus, ‘I am come that
THE WILLIAM BELDEN NOBLE LECTURES

they might have life, and that they might have it
more abundantly.’ In accordance with the large
interpretation of the Influence of Jesus by the late
Phillips Brooks, with whose religious teaching he in
whose memory the Lectures are established and also
the founder of the Lectures were in deep sympathy,
it is intended that the scope of the Lectures shall be
as wide as the highest interests of humanity. With
this end in view,—the perfection of the spiritual
man and the consecration by the spirit of Jesus of
every department of human character, thought, and
activity, — the Lectures may include philosophy,
literature, art, poetry, the natural sciences, political
economy, sociology, ethics, history both civil and
ecclesiastical, as well as theology and the more direct
interests of the religious life. Beyond a sympathy
with the purpose of the Lectures, as thus defined, no
restriction is placed upon the lecturer.’’
APPLIED ETHICS
APPLIED ETHICS

R. PRESIDENT and
M ladies and gentlemen,
this seems to me to

be a pretty lively audience to
listen to an address on Applied
Ethics. It sounds more as if
we were — not at the last foot-
ball game, but at some other
foot-ball game. It is naturally
a very great pleasure to me to
come back to my own college to
speak here at Harvard to you
—to you men who will have so
much to do with shaping the
future of our country; and I
want, at the outset, to tell you
how profoundly touched and
4 APPLIED ETHICS

pleased I am with your recep-
tion. I was glad to accept the
invitation to deliver this lecture,
and I am now much more pleased
even than I had anticipated.
The only thing is, I hope that
I am not going to disappoint
your expectations. I did not
suppose there would be quite as
much of an audience as this and
I have a rather solemn address to
make to you.

I feel that peculiar good comes
from the foundation of lectures
of just this kind, because I believe
that any educational institution
worth calling such must, con-
sciously or unconsciously, train
character quite as much as it
trains intellect; for no man has
gained what ought to be gained
APPLIED ETHICS 5

from his college career unless he
comes out of college with a finer.
and higher sense of his obligations
and duties as well as with a
trained capacity to do them well.

I told President Lowell, when
he spoke to me about delivering
this lecture, that I wished to
speak on Applied Ethics; and
I intend to draw my examples
mainly from our public life. I
regard the study of ethics pur-
sued merely as an_ intellectual
recreation as being about as
worthless as any form of men-
tal amusement can be. In the
course of my life I have had to
deliver a good many lay sermons,
—my enemies being divided as
to whether the sentiments that
I utter are incitements to revo-
6 APPLIED ETHICS

lution or platitudes, and usually
compromising by saying that
they are both. —I have had to
deliver a good many sermons,
and the more often I have had
either to speak, or to listen to
others speak, the more clearly
and deeply I realize that it is not
only no good to preach, or to
listen to, a sermon which is not
put into practical effect, but that
it is a positive damage. The
man who utters moral sentiments
to which he does not try to live
up, and the other man who listens
and applauds the utterance of
those sentiments and yet himself
does not try to live up to them,
— both those men not only gain
no good from what they have
said and listened to; but have
APPLIED ETHICS 7

done themselves positive harm,
because they have weakened just
a little the spring of conscience
within them.

I believe, to the last degree, in
the duty of the man who preaches
to preach realizable ideals. Of
course, when I say realizable, I
do not mean that we can com-
pletely realize any ideal. When
in battle you spur your men on
to perform some deed of valor
and prowess, it is impossible that
all of them shall live up to what
your words call them to do. But
what you have said in battle to
your men is absolutely worthless,
no matter how high and exalted
the sentiment, unless it does make
a reasonable proportion of the
soldiers to whom it is addressed
8 APPLIED ETHICS

move forward into the battle and
do their duty reasonably well.
The word of command is useless
in the fight unless a reasonable
number of those to whom it is
uttered not only listen to it but
act upon it; and the man who
utters it will not find that the
other men to whom he utters it
will pay much heed to it unless
they know he is prepared himself
to show them the way.

Now, friends, that is rather
elementary. The word of com-
mand, you understand, is a “‘ plat-
itude.” Every adjuration to men
in a great crisis to bear them-
selves well is such a “ platitude ”’;
but it is a mighty useful plati-
tude to translate into action. It
is rather elementary, but after all
APPLIED ETHICS 9

it gives the exact analogue to
what I mean should be our atti-
tude in civil life. The preach-
er, whether he is in the pulpit
or whether he is a lay preacher,
whether he is a professor, an
adviser, or a lecturer, — the
preacher is really trying to give
the word of command, the word
of direction and encouragement,
to the men whom he is ad-
dressing; and if he gives that
word simply to get himself a
sense of intellectual satisfaction
at having given it, and if his
hearers listen to it only as they
would to any other form of enter-
tainment, then it is not worth
while for him to have spoken
and it is not worth while for
them to have listened. The only
10 APPLIED ETHICS

value in a speech comes from
there being the effort made with
measurable success to translate
the words into deeds. Of course,
the man who preaches decency
and straight dealing occupies a
peculiarly contemptible position
if he does not try himself to
practise what he preaches; and,
on the other hand, the men who
listen to him — you here — should
realize that if they treat listening
to a lecture about their duties
as a substitute for performing
their duties they would better
have stayed at home. The value
of what is said arises solely from
the effort measurably to realize
it in action.

Now, as I told you at the out-
set, I wish to-night to speak to
APPLIED ETHICS 11

you about the application of
ethical principles, the application
of morality, in actual life; and
I wish to illustrate it by appeal-
ing to certain examples of action
in public life. Of course, my
hearers, it ought to be —and
I hope is— unnecessary to say
that the first and_all-essential
thing in seeking to practise any
morality is to apply it to your
lives as you actually lead them.
If you go away from this hall
feeling a fine glow of virtuous
determination to do your duty
in politics a few years hence, and
meanwhile feel excused from per-
forming your duties in other lines,
you will not have gained much
good from the lecture. You are
not going to do much service
12 APPLIED ETHICS

in public life unless you first fit
yourselves for doing it by the
way in which you do your duties
in your private lives. The cases
are rare indeed where the man
is a useful citizen in his relation
to the State at the same time
that he is not a useful citizen
in his relations to his family and
his neighbors. Normally, the
man cannot be a good citizen
in the sense of performing his
duty to the Commonwealth as
a whole unless he is the type of
man who performs the first and
most essential of all duties, —
those in connection with his own
family, his own friends and neigh-
bors and associates. But I do
not intend to-night to speak
about those first and most es-
APPLIED ETHICS 13

sential duties. I want to speak
of morality as actually translated
into action in the public interest.
I want to speak of Applied Ethics
in public life—of the applica-
tion of the principles for which
we contend in the name of good
citizenship to actual problems of
service, — and to do that I must
name names, I must speak of
individuals.

Let me interrupt, for a moment,
as a digression. The other day
I had a visit from a man who
has to a peculiar degree fulfilled
the duties of good citizenship,
— Judge Ben Lindsay, who has
done such great service, not mere-
ly for children but for grown
men and women, out in Den-
ver, and who has actually tried
14 APPLIED ETHICS

in his life and his work to
realize the highest principles that
can be preached as a matter of
doctrine. He mentioned to me
that all his troubles came when,
from denouncing vice in the ab-
stract, he went on to attack
vicious men in the concrete; that
everybody was willing — not
only willing but anxious — to
turn out and heartily approve
his assaults upon corruption, and
the failure to do their duty on
the part of rich men, and the
evils of mixing up business and
politics, as long as he did not
give too definite information as
to whom he was talking against.
The minute that he did so, they
said he was ‘‘ an enemy to pros-
perity ”’ and “an apostle of revo-
APPLIED ETHICS 15

lution”; and, unfortunately, many
of the men who should have
been the ethical leaders of the
community and who preached the
highest kind of ethical teachings
in the abstract turned around
on him as soon as he spoke in
the concrete, and attacked him
for lack of charity, for turbu-
lence of spirit, as trying to set
one class of his fellow-citizens
against another class, as “a
muck-raker” and, in short, as
“a highly undesirable citizen.”
Now, to-night, I shall not trespass
upon your patience by speaking
of any individual for purposes
of condemnation, but I do wish
to speak of some men who have
emphatically deserved well of the
republic; and I speak of them,
16 APPLIED ETHICS

not for their own sake, but as
illustrating just what I mean
when I talk of the application
in practice of the principles that
are preached.

Last Commencement Day, in
June, on this platform, among
the addresses of the members
of the graduating class to which I
listened with real pleasure was one
by young Bishop, in which he
incidentally alluded to work on
the Canal Zone down in Panama.
His address suggested my speak-
ing to you of the work that has
been done down there for the
American people. Travelling
through Europe last year I was
impressed by the fact that in
every nation the leading states-
men whom I met had always be-
APPLIED ETHICS 17

fore their minds as the two great
feats performed by the American
people during the last decade
these two,— the voyage of the
battle fleet around the world, and
the digging of the Panama Canal.
I do not think I need tell you
that foreign nations are not in
the least impressed with what
we say of ourselves — not in the
least. All that impresses them
is what we do. No Fourth of
July oration, explaining what a
great people we are, has any
effect outside of our own boun-
daries— and not much within
them. The only thing that im-
presses an outsider is the way in
which, on any given proposition,
we make good. No foreign coun-
try expected that we could send
18 APPLIED ETHICS

that battle fleet around the world
in the shape in which we sent it,
because none of the foreign coun-
tries of the greatest naval power
believed that they themselves
could do it; and they were pro-
portionally impressed not only
by the fact that we did it but
by the way in which it was done,
—by the fact that the fleet,
after being away for a year and
a quarter and circumnavigating
the globe, came back, having kept
to the minute every appointment
on its schedule, and reached home
in far better fighting trim as
regards both men and ships than
when it had sailed. That im-
pressed all responsible statesmen
abroad much more keenly even
than it impressed our own people.
APPLIED ETHICS 19

And so the digging of the
Panama Canal, the success with
which it has been dug, has, curi-
ously enough, made, I think, a
deeper impression abroad than at
home. Unfortunately — and with
a certain amount of justification
—there has grown up a feeling
that there is danger of corruption
in work undertaken among us
by the Government for the pub-
lic, and the total failure of all
previous efforts by other nations
to accomplish anything on the
Panama Canal had given rise
in Europe to much cynical dis-
belief in our power to do the
work. But it has been done;
the success is literally astound-
ing. It has been done with as
near absolute cleanness, as near
20 APPLIED ETHICS

absolute honesty, as it is humanly
possible to do any work, public
or private. We have put down
there men at small salaries —
improperly small salaries — who
have handled hundreds of millions
of dollars, without the slightest
suspicion of financial corruptien
on the part of any Government
servant holding a position of any
importance in connection with
the work. Moreover the work
has been done with the utmost
efficiency.

Now, when I speak of Applied
Ethics, I want you to understand
that I have mighty little use for
ethics that are applied with such
inefficiency that no good results
come. I don’t care a snap of
my finger for the good man who
APPLIED ETHICS 21

cannot do anything practical, for
the virtue that is so fragile that
the minute it is taken out of the
study it decomposes under the
influence of fresh air. It would
not have been of any comfort
to you, or anything but a source
of shame to me, if we had had
down on the Isthmus excellent
and worthy men who could not
do the job. Morality, to count,
must include the two elements
of uprightness and_ efficiency.
You need the zeal, and the
knowledge without which zeal
amounts to so little; and I need
not say, gentlemen, that to be
efficient without also being up-
right is merely to be addition-
ally dangerous to the community.
The abler a man is, the worse
22 APPLIED ETHICS

he is from the public standpoint
if his ability is not guided by
conscience. I hope to see the
day when every citizen of the
United States will feel that, of
two rogues, infinitely the worse
is the rogue who is successful,
—that ability divorced from a
sense of ethical responsibility,
ability divorced from decency
and morality, makes a man the
kind of a public man whom it is
our bounden duty to hunt out
of public life. I cannot put that
too strongly. But the converse
is also true, that morality, decency,
the sense of honesty, the desire
to do right, are almost worthless
unless accompanied by practical
efficiency. It is a good thing
for a community if you teach
APPLIED ETHICS — 23

it to think of goodness as being
somehow or other connected with
capacity to make things go. The
applied morality of which I speak
is compounded of both upright-
ness and efficiency.

This is just what has been
shown by the people down on
the Isthmus. I spoke of young
Bishop making his speech here
last Commencement Day. His
father has for years rendered
the highest and most disinter-
ested and efficient service on the
Isthmus in connection with dig-
ging that canal; and he has
rendered this service for an ut-
terly inadequate salary. The
work as a whole has been done
under the direction of an army
officer, Colonel Goethals, whose
24 APPLIED ETHICS

name is not very familiar to the
people here in the United States;
and yet, I think, this country
at this time owes as much to
him as any country in the world
owes to any public man now
performing a public duty. I am
not speaking hyperbolically. I
have had some historical train-
ing myself, and I am using exactly
the words that I think describe
the case, when I say what I have
said. I believe that, excepting
a certain number of men who
have taken part in the wars which
founded and _ perpetuated this
republic, there is no body of our
citizens of similar size which has
more emphatically deserved well
of the republic than the men en-
gaged in doing that work down
APPLIED ETHICS — 25

at Panama, men like Dr. Gor-
gas, Mr. Bishop, all the engi-
neer officers, and above all Col-
onel Goethals. It is he to whom
we owe most — to whom we owe
more than to any other one
man for what has been done
down there.

Now there are plenty of things
in the body politic to which we
cannot point with any especial
pride, and it is good to remem-
ber the men who, on our behalf,
for our interest and honor, have
done such work as Colonel Goe-
thals has done. His is one case
of Applied Ethics; of the efficient
application of ethical principles
in public life. And remember,
Colonel Goethals does not profit
pecuniarily by doing that won-
26 APPLIED ETHICS

derful work in our interest. He
will finish it as part of his duty
as an army officer and then take
any other detail to which he is
assigned; and so far from being
properly rewarded by this Gov-
ernment, he will be uncommonly
lucky if he is not ferociously
attacked should any effort be
made to recognize his great ser-
vices by giving him some special
promotion. I am not making “a
wild guess”? here. I am speak-
ing having vividly in mind the
attitude taken by so large a por-
tion of the press, and by no
inconsiderable portion of the
public, when the best man in
our army, outside of the engi-
neer corps, was thus rewarded for
his services; the reward taking
APPLIED ETHICS = 27

the shape of putting him in a
position where he could render
still further service to the Ameri-
can people of a kind that no one
else could render quite so well.
I am speaking of the present
head of the general staff of the
army, a Harvard man, Leonard
Wood, who represents another in-
stance of Applied Ethics in pub-
lic affairs.

So much for the Panama Canal
and the Army. Now take an-
other matter in which I think
we are all interested, the ques-
tion of the conservation of our
national resources, — the forests,
the water, the soil of our country.
We have all agreed in the abstract
that it is right to conserve them.
We are taking some steps in the
28 APPLIED ETHICS

concrete to do it. We have es-
tablished a first-class school of
forestry here at Harvard. We
are all glad to come together in
convention and make speeches,
or listen to speeches, about the
necessity of keeping our forests,
—especially if none of us wish
to cut them down, — and of the
duty of somebody else not to
waste any water. And _ those
meetings do some good but the
real value comes in the work of
practically applying what is said.
I think each one of you knows
—and if any one of you does
not know, he will find out in
after life—that it is infinitely
easier to draw up a perfect plan
in the study than to realize
however imperfectly that plan in
APPLIED ETHICS = 29

action. It is none too easy
when the plan affects only one
human being. When it affects a
great many human beings it be-
comes ever increasingly difficult.
Far and away the best work
that has been done, for the cause
of conservation has been done
by two men, James Garfield and
Gifford Pinchot. I saw them
work while I was President, and
I can speak with the fullest knowl-
edge of what they did. They
took the policy of conservation
when it was still nebulous and
they applied it and made it work.
They actually did the job that
I and the others talked about.
I know what they did because
it was something in which I in-
tensely believed, and yet it was
30 APPLIED ETHICS

something about which I did not
have enough practical knowledge
to enable me to work except
through them and largely as the
result of following out on my
part their initiative. They did
not confine themselves only to
speaking. (Don’t think that I
am running down all speaking.
It is sometimes necessary; and
its necessity can often be gauged
by the measure of discontent
that it excites.) They translated
their words into actions; they
actually did what we were all
saying ought to be done; and
our profound respect and appre-
ciation is due them for their
work.

Now I wish to touch upon
Applied Ethics in a totally dif-
APPLIED ETHICS — 31

ferent type of governmental
work. The papers today have
contained the statement that
Mr. Carnegie has made a most
munificent, a most generous gift,
consecrated to the bringing about
of international peace, of peace
among the nations of the world.
Mr. Carnegie has rendered many
and real services to peace, and
apparently this will be one of
the greatest, and he is entitled
to the gratitude, not only of
lovers of our own country, but
of all patriotic citizens of all
countries, for what he has done.
I trust that there will be no
mistake as to the ampleness of
the recognition which I hope to
see given to Mr. Carnegie’s
generosity in this cause, and
32 APPLIED ETHICS

that you will not misunderstand
me when I add that, in spite of
what I have just said, the worth
of the gift will in the end largely
depend upon the common sense
and good judgment and efficiency
with which the trustees or those
working under them try to em-
body the purpose of the donation
in actual acts.

For the last sixty years these
conferences have been among
the fairly common phenomena of
international history. Some of
these conferences have done real
good, very great good. But un-
fortunately, peace seems to be
a subject that attracts a good
many people who have a more
marked emotional than intellect-
ual development; and at any
APPLIED ETHICS = 33

such conference those who, like
myself, sincerely believe in the
purpose for which the conference
is held have to do all we can to
try to secure action of such wis-
dom as to offset the unfortunate
impression made by the _per-
fectly worthy people who pro-
pose to bring about peace by
abolishing the use of tin soldiers
in the nursery, or by other plans
almost as preposterous. Prob-
ably most of you do not know
that that is a proposition seri-
ously made by different persons
in different nations; and we have
to try to win victories for the
cause of peace in spite of the
fact that some of its advocates
are of such a type!
34 APPLIED ETHICS

There have been, of course,
many proposals for furthering the
cause of international peace which
were so wild or so foolish that
they have not only done no good,
but have probably done a little
harm. Nevertheless, many of
the great peace conferences have
done a real good. They have
gradually accustomed peoples
and statesmen to considering the
possibility of at least normally
getting some wise substitute for
war as a means of settling in-
ternational disputes. Good has
come from those conferences; but
the good has only come when
there have afterwards arisen men
able, practically, to put into exe-
cution the resolutions passed so
easily at the conferences them-
APPLIED ETHICS — 35

selves. Any man who has had
any experience in public life knows
that it is the easiest thing pos-
sible to pass through any legis-
lative or deliberative body a reso-
lution in favor of almost any-
thing, if the resolution is not to
be followed by practical action;
and to gratify people who believe
in peace almost any legislature
is willing to pass any resolution,
on the sole condition that it shall
not be followed by action. Such
legislative action is of course as
nearly worthless when adopted
as it is easy to adopt.

The worth and the difficulty
both begin to appear only when
the effort is made to reduce the
resolution to action. I will give
you an example of what I mean,
36 APPLIED ETHICS

and again I am happy to say
that it is an example as to which
we have a right to take pride in
American action.

The first Hague Conference,
besides doing other things, estab-
lished the Hague Court which
was—I won’t say the first prac-
tical step, but resolving in favor
of taking the first practical step,
towards the realization of what
was hoped for. The resolution
was passed. The Hague Court
was in theory established. The
judges were appointed, the mode
of procedure was hinted at, at
least; but there were no clients.
The nations that had joined in
establishing the court had been
quite willing to pass resolutions
in favor of peace and for the
APPLIED ETHICS = 37

principle of the Hague Court;
but when it came to practical
action, they would not send to
that court one single contro-
versy in which they were en-
gaged among themselves or with
any other nation. They would
not put a single issue before the
court; and there was not a chan-
cellory in Europe in which the
mention of the Hague Court ex-
cited any other emotion than
gentle derision. Under such cir-
cumstances that court would
speedily — I won’t say have
sunk into nothing, because it
had n’t become anything — but
it would speedily have, by mere
disuse, taken its place among the
rosy dreams, impossible of reali-
zation, of well-meaning vision-
38 APPLIED ETHICS

aries. It was saved from this
fate by the action of an American
public man who, in his work as
a public man, did try again and
again, and did succeed again
and again in actually translating
ethical principles into ethical
action, John Hay. John Hay
secured the sending to that court
of the first case that ever went
to it, the settlement of a con-
troversy between ourselves and
the Republic of Mexico, and the
success of that arbitration at once
and for good put the Hague
Court on its feet. At last the
man had arisen who could prac-
tically apply ethical principles,
and who actually did what he
had said ought to be done —a
very different thing.
APPLIED ETHICS = 39

Now, take what has just hap-
pened this last summer. The
settlement by treaty and in other
peaceful ways of differences be-
tween ourselves and other powers
during the administration of, and
in accordance with the action of,
President Taft has resulted in a
sum of real achievement redound-
ing greatly to the credit of the
country during his first year and
three-quarters of his administra-
tion; and one of the conspicuous
instances of the success of the
administration in dealing with
this class of cases was in connec-
tion with the Hague arbitration
of our fisheries difficulty with
Great Britain. That arbitra-
tion turned out so well because
of the high character and able
40 APPLIED ETHICS

service of the distinguished men
who actually did the work which
made it successful; and above
all of Elihu Root. Mr. Root
has rendered great service to this
country as Secretary of War, as
Secretary of State, and as Sena-
tor, but few greater than that
which he rendered last summer
at the Hague tribunal. And I
want to just call your attention
to this fact. Mr. Root went over
there, stayed the whole summer,
worked most arduously, and ren-
dered service to the nation the
equivalent of which, if rendered
by him to a great corporation,
would certainly have earned him
a fee of fifty or a hundred thou-
sand dollars; and he rendered
it without getting a dollar, —
APPLIED ETHICS = 41

rendered it simply as part of his
work as a public man and a
Senator, because he thought he
ought to do it. And, mind you,
inasmuch as we in this country
do not take any very great or
keen interest in anything that
happens beyond our borders, he
rendered it with mighty little
appreciation from us of what a
big service it was. He thereby
rendered the cause of peace an
infinitely greater service than
could possibly be rendered by
any man making the most im-
passioned oration for peace at a
Peace Convention.

The orator who says what a
good thing peace is, after all,
is not performing a very difficult
task. We all of us agree with
42 APPLIED ETHICS

him in the abstract. But the
man who actually gets down to
the work of making two different
countries, each of which is con-
vinced that it is right and that
its opponent is very iniquitous
and entirely wrong,—the man
who gets down to the practical
work of securing an agreement
between those two countries, and
gets the agreement, has done
more to forward the cause of
peace than any mere orator, any
mere platform speaker for peace,
can possibly do in an entire life-
time spent in agitation for the
cause. It is the practical work
of realizing the ethical principle
in action that finally counts.
That is what really amounts, not
only to the major part, but to
APPLIED ETHICS = 43

ninety per cent, of bringing the
reform into real operation. That
is the service which Root ren-
dered. That is the kind of
service which will have to be
rendered by a constantly greater
number of statesmen in public
life in order ultimately to bring
about the day when rational and
merciful methods of obtaining
justice between nations shall take
the place of war. I believe that
we can make real progress toward
that day. I believe that in our
own generation we can so act
as to minimize — perhaps “ min-
imize” is too strong a word;
but we can so act as constantly
to lessen — the chances for war.
Now, having said that, I ask
you to remember also that if we
44 APPLIED ETHICS

are to be a power for peace, we
Americans, it must be evident
that we wish peace in the name
of justice, that we wish peace
because it is right, and not be-
cause we are so weak that we
fear war. As things are in the
world at present there is this
fundamental difference between in-
ternational justice and justice as
administered to individuals with-
in the state, that is, as between
international law and civic law:
civic law rests on a_ sanction
of force, and international law
does not. There is not a big
city that could get along twenty-
four hours without a police force,
and the criminal is only held to ac-
count because the policeman, in
some shape or other, is at hand
APPLIED ETHICS § 45

to carry out the order of the
judge. As yet we have been
wholly unable to devise any inter-
national police force, so that in
international law there is no sanc-
tion behind the decree of any
court. Good will, and the friend-
ship of foreign powers, are utterly
insufficient substitutes for ability
to protect ourselves. No foreign
nation, not the most friendly,
will respect us or give us its
slightest aid, save on condition
that we make it evident that
in case of need we can fight for
our own land. Any nation which
declines to provide for its own
self-defence has before it in China
a striking picture of what its
ultimate fate must be. China
has believed in peace; but it
46 APPLIED ETHICS

has believed in a peace that should
come from weakness and not
from justice. China is not making
aggressions on anybody; China
is not endeavoring to attack any-
body; and it is only saved from
destruction — and it is not saved
from spoliation and _hectoring
and attempted division — by the
fact that there are many outside
powers jealous of one another.
The well-meaning people who
wish America to disarm (so far
as you can say that we are armed
— for we are armed mighty little)
—the well-meaning people who
wish America to take any such
course, really seek to turn it
into an Occidental China, which
would not only become contempt-
APPLIED ETHICS 47

ible in itself, but would also be-
come just as powerless as China
now is to advance the cause of
peace among other nations. You
need not take my word for this.
Think yourselves; if we have a
peace conference tomorrow how
much weight will the Chinese
delegates at that conference
carry? The Japanese and the
Germans will carry a great deal.
They can help the cause of peace.
China cannot. China cannot
help the cause of peace because
the other nations think that her
desire for peace is due to fear,
and not to the love of justice. I
wish to see America’s influence
cast in every case for righteous-
ness and for fair-dealing as be-
48 APPLIED ETHICS

tween nation and nation. I wish
to see our public men, and our
public at large, scorn to act with
brutality, with insolence or in-
justice, or even with lack of con-
sideration toward any other na-
tion; and I hope to see an aroused
public opinion that will frown
on all Americans, wherever they
may be, who wantonly act in any
way adversely to the honor and
interest of another people. But
I also wish to see it made clear,
as due to the peoples of the earth,
that we act in such a way because
we think it is right and not be-
cause we fear any consequence
to ourselves. There are well-
meaning—I_ say ‘* well-mean-

ing” in a rather conventional
APPLIED ETHICS = 49

sense, — there are short-sighted
men sufficiently unpatriotic to
wish us to cease keeping the
American Navy up to the proper
point of efficiency and prepared-
ness, who wish us not to fortify
the Panama Canal. Those men,
if they had their way, would
make us powerless to act with
any efficiency in the cause of
peace. No attention would be
paid to our people when they
sought for peace if it were not
realized that they spoke as repre-
senting the conscience, and not
the timidity, of the American
nation. I ask, in the name of
peace, that this nation be pre-
pared to hold its own against the
strong, and I ask, in the name
50 APPLIED ETHICS

of justice and peace, that within
and without our borders we act
with scrupulous fairness toward
the weak. That is the true Amer-
ican doctrine.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRINTING OFFICE
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S. a.