FINAL REFLECTIONS The farther the world war progressed, the more did it lose the character of the work of individual men.

It assumed rather the character of a cosmic event, taking more and more from the effectiveness of the most powerful individuals.
All settlements on which coalitions were based were connected with certain war aims by the Cabinets, such as the promises of compensation given to their own people, the hopes of gain from the final victory.
The encouragement of intense and boundless hatred, the increasing crude brutality of the world all tended to create a situation making each individual like a small stone which, breaking away from an avalanche of stones, hurls itself downwards without a leader and without goal, and is no longer capable of being guided by anyone.
The Council of Four at Versailles tried for some time to make the world believe that they possessed the power to rebuild Europe according to their own ideas.

According to their own ideas! That signified, to begin with, four utterly different ideas, for four different worlds were comprised in Rome, Paris, London, and Washington.

And the four representatives--"the Big Four," as they were called--were each individually the slave of his programme, his pledges, and his people.

Those responsible for the Paris negotiations _in camera_, which lasted for many months, and were a breeding ground for European anarchy, had their own good reasons for secrecy; there was no end to the disputes, for which no outlet could be found.
Here, Wilson had been scoffed at and cursed because he deserted his programme; certainly, there is not the slightest similarity between the Fourteen Points and the Peace of Versailles and St.Germain, but it is forgotten now that Wilson no longer had the power to enforce his will against the three others.