Since the Treaty of Versailles—more in the nature of an armistice than a treaty of peace—we have from time to time heard rumors of wars; and today a state of war exists. Therefore neutrality is no longer a mere conception, it is a fact; and, as wars are contagious—at least they were a few years ago—many people there are who look upon a world war as a dread possibility, unless the present machinery of peace proves itself competent to bring about and to preserve peace.