Typical French politicians.
Nationalist deputies and aldermen making their annual manifestation before the statue of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde.
for no single war can settle those vexed questions—there may be seen the fall of old governments and the upbuilding of new, the end of dynasties and the creation of new national combinations. In the near East there is always imminent a catastrophe which might involve all Europe in conflict.
I am by no means rash enough to venture opinions of my own in regard to the political future of Europe. The question is too complicated, the undercurrents too many and too important, for the casual observer to reach more than a superficial conclusion. I have been fortunate, however, in meeting men of great importance in both the business life and Government councils of most of the capitals, and the impression which I have of Europe’s political future is the composite of interviews with men whose opinions are worth attention. The impression which these conversations has left is one of political stability, one which leads to a strong belief in the unlikelihood of immediate radical changes. There may be socialistic triumphs, there may he growing parties with programmes of revolt against the existing form of government, there may be burdensome taxation and great military expenditures; and still; if one takes up one nation after another and analyzes its position in relation to the whole fabric of European politics, the practical man will, I believe, conclude that Europe is likely to go on for a great many years very much as it has been going on for a good many years past.
Take the situation in revolutionary France, the country that has had more experience in constitution making than all others in Europe. France is to-day really one of the most stable of European governments. There is small likelihood of France becoming involved in any war, and the reason for that does not lie in this great wave of popular approval of arbitration which is just now such a manifest feature of French politics, but lies much deeper. France has no serious ambitions for an increase of European territory. Alsace-Lorraine is a poignant regret, but not a military ambition. Perhaps the one dominant characteristic of the French nation as a whole is its penurious thrift; and every holder of F. 100 rentes is an advocate of peace because the economy of peace appeals to his pockets.