Part 27

The business men of the United States had no choice. They could not pause when they had spanned the continent. Ambition called them, surplus compelled them, profits lured them, the will to power dominated their lives. As well expect the Old Guard to pause in the middle of a charge--even before the sunken road at Waterloo--as to expect the business interests of the United States to cease their efforts and lay down their tools of conquest simply because they had reached the ocean in one direction. While there were left other directions in which there was no ocean; while other undeveloped regions offered the possibility of development, an inexorable fate--the fate inherent in the economic and the human stuff with which they were working compelled them to cry "Onward!" and to turn to the tasks that lay ahead.

The fathers and grandfathers of these Twentieth Century American Plutocrats, working coatless in their tiny factories; managing their corner stores; serving their local banks, and holding their minor offices had never dreamed of the destiny that lay ahead. No matter. The necessity for expansion had come and with it came the opportunity. The economic pressure complemented the human desire for "more." The structure of business organization, which was erected to conquer one continent could not cease functioning when that one continent was subdued. Rather, high geared and speeded up as it was, it was in fine form to extend its conquests, like the well groomed army that has come scatheless through a great campaign, and that longs, throughout its tensely unified structure to be off on the next mission.

The business life of the United States came to the Pacific; touched the Canadian border; surged against the Rio Grande. The continent had been spanned; the objective had been attained. Still, the cry was "Onward!"

Onward? Whither?

Onward to the lands where resources are abundant and rich; onward where labor is plentiful, docile and cheap; onward where the opportunities for huge profits are met with on every hand; onward into the undeveloped countries of the world.

The capitalists of the European nations, faced by a similar necessity for expansion, had been compelled to go half round the earth to India, to South Africa, to the East Indies, to China, to Canada, to South America. Close at home there was no country except Russia that offered great possibilities of development.

The business interests of the United States were more fortunate. At their very doors lay the opportunities--in Canada, in Mexico, in the West Indies, in Central and South America. Here were countries with the amplest, richest resources; countries open for capitalist development. To be sure these investment fields had been invaded already by foreign capitalists--British, German, Belgian and Spanish. But at the same time they were surrounded by a tradition of great virility and power--the tradition of "America for the Americans."

XI. THE GREAT WAR

1. Daylight

The work of industrial empire building had continued for less than half a century when the United States entered the Great War, which was one in a sequence of events that bound America to the wheel of destiny as it bound England and France and Germany and Japan and every other country that had adopted the capitalist method of production.

The war-test revealed the United States to the world and to its own people as a great nation playing a mighty rôle in international affairs. Most Europeans had not suspected the extent of its power. Even the Americans did not realize it. Nevertheless, the processes of economic empire building had laid a foundation upon which the superstructure of political empire is reared as a matter of course. Henceforth, no one need ask whether the United States should or should not be an imperial nation. There remained only the task of determining what form American imperialism should take.

The Great War rounded out the imperial beginnings of the United States. It strengthened the plutocracy at home; it gave the United States immense prestige abroad.

The Era of Imperialism dawned upon the United States in 1898. Daylight broke in 1914, and the night of isolation and of international unimportance gave place to a new day of imperial power.

2. Plutocracy in the Saddle

The rapid sweep across a new continent had placed the resources of the United States in the hands of a powerful minority. Nature had been generous and private ownership of the inexhaustible wilderness seemed to be the natural--the obvious method of procedure.

The lightning march of the American people across the continent gave the plutocracy its grip on the natural resources. The revolutionary transformations in industry guaranteed its control of the productive machinery.

The wizards of industrial activity have changed the structure of business life even more rapidly than they have conquered the wilderness. True sons of their revolutionary ancestors, they have slashed and remodeled and built anew with little regard for the past.

Revolutions are the stalking grounds of predatory power. Napoleon built his empire on the French Revolution; Cromwell on the revolt against tyrannical royalty in England. Peaceful times give less opportunity to personal ambition. Institutions are well-rooted, customs and habits are firmly placed, life is regulated and held to earth by a fixed framework of habit and tradition.

Revolution comes--fiercely, impetuously--uprooting institutions, overthrowing traditions, tearing customs from their resting places. All is uncertainty--chaos, when, lo! a man on horseback gathers the loose strands together saying, "Good people, I know, follow me!"

He does know; but woe to the people who follow him! Yet, what shall they do? Whither shall they turn? How shall they act? Who can be relied upon in this uncertain hour?

The man on horseback rises in his stirrups--speaking in mighty accents his message of hope and cheer, reassuring, promising, encouraging, inspiring all who come within the sound of his voice. His is the one assurance in a wilderness of uncertainty. What wonder that the people follow where he leads and beckons!

The revolutionary changes in American economic life between the Civil War and the War of 1914 gave the plutocrat his chance. He was the man on horseback, quick, clever, shrewd, farseeing, persuasive, powerful. Through the courses of these revolutionary changes, the Hills, Goulds, Harrimans, Wideners, Weyerhausers, Guggenheims, Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Morgans did to the American economic organization exactly what Napoleon did to the French political organization--they took possession of it.

3. Making the Plutocracy Be Good

The American people were still thinking the thoughts of a competitive economic life when the cohorts of an organized plutocracy bore down upon them. High prices, trusts, millionaires, huge profits, corruption, betrayal of public office took the people by surprise, confused them, baffled them, enraged them. Their first thought was of politics, and during the years immediately preceding the war they were busy with the problem of legislating goodness into the plutocracy.

The plutocrats were in public disfavor, and their control of natural resources, banks, railroads, mines, factories, political parties, public offices, governmental machinery, the school system, the press, the pulpit, the movie business,--all of this power amounted to nothing unless it was backed by public opinion.

How could the plutocracy--the discredited, vilified plutocracy--get public opinion? How could the exploiters gain the confidence of the American people? There was only one way--they must line up with some cause that would command public attention and compel public support. The cause that it chose was the "defense of the United States."

4. "Preparedness"

The plutocracy, with a united front, "went in" for the "defense of the United States,"--attacking the people on the side of their greatest weakness; playing upon their primitive emotions of fear and hate. The campaign was intense and dramatic, featuring Japanese invasions, Mexican inroads, and a world conquest by Germany.