Part 31

Each great nation grew from small beginnings. Each arose from some simple form of tribal or clan organization--more or less democratic in its structure; containing within itself a unified life and a simple folk philosophy.

From such plain beginnings empires have developed. The peasants, tending their fertile gardens along the borders of the Nile; the vine dressers of Italy, the husbandmen and craftsmen of France and the yeomen of Merry England had no desire to subjugate the world. If tradition speaks truth, they were slow to take upon themselves anything more than the defense of their own hearthstones. It was not until the traders sailed across the seas; not until stories were brought to them of the vast spoil to be had, without work, in other lands, that the peasants and craftsmen consented to undertake the task of conquest, subjugation and empire building.

The plain people do not feel the will to power. They know only the necessities of self-defense. It is in the ambitions of the leisure classes that the demands of conquest have their origin. It is among them that men dream of world empire.

The plain people of the United States have no will to power at the present time. They are only asking to be let alone, in order that they may go their several ways in peace. They are babes in the world of international politics. For generations they have been separated by a great gulf of indifference from the remainder of the human race, and they crave the continuance of this isolation because it gives them a chance to engage, unmolested, in the ordinary pursuits of life.

The American people are not imperialists. They are proud of their country, jealous of her honor, willing to make sacrifices for their dear ones. They are to-day where the plain folk of Egypt, Rome, France and England were before the will to power gripped the ruling classes of those countries.

Far different is the position of the American plutocracy. As a ruling class the plutocracy feels the necessity of preserving and enlarging its privileges. Recently called into a position of leadership, untrained and in a sense unprepared, it nevertheless understands that its claim to consideration depends upon its ability to do what the ruling classes of Egypt, Rome, France and England have done--to build an empire.

Almost unconsciously, out of the necessities of the period, has come the structure of the American Empire. In essence it is an empire, although the plain people do not know it, and even the members of the plutocracy are in many instances unaware of its true character. Yet here, in a land dedicated to liberty and settled by men and women who sought to escape from the savage struggles of empire-ridden Europe, the foundations and the superstructure of empire appear.

1. The people of the United States have conquered and now hold possession of approximately three million square miles of continental territory that has been won by armed force from Great Britain, Mexico, Spain, and the American Indians. (The entire area of Europe is only 3,800,000 square miles.)

2. The people of the United States have conquered and now hold under their sway subject people who have enjoyed no opportunity for self-determination. A whole race--the African Negroes--was captured in its native land, transported to America and there sold into slavery. The inhabitants of the Philippine Islands were conquered by the armed forces of the United States and still are subject people.

3. The United States had developed a plutocracy--a property holding class, that is, to all intents and purposes, the imperialist class--controlling and directing public policy.

4. This plutocratic class is exploiting continental United States and its dependencies. After years of savage internal strife, it has developed a high degree of class consciousness, and led by its bankers, it is taking the fat of the land. The plutocrats, who have made the country their United States, are at the present moment busy disposing of their surplus in foreign countries. As they build their industrial empires, they broaden and deepen their power.

Thus is the round of imperialism complete. Here are the conquered territory, subject people, an imperial ruling class, and the exploitation, by this class, of the lands and peoples that come within the scope of their power. These are the attributes of empire--the characteristics that have appeared, in one form or another, through the great empires of the past and of the present day. Differing in their forms, they remain similar in the principles that they represent. They are imperialism.

5. Imperial Purpose

The building of international industrial empires by the progressive business men of the United States lays the foundation for whatever political imperialism is necessary to protect markets, trade and investment. Gathering floods of economic surplus are the driving forces which are guided by ambition and love of gain and power.

The United States emerged from the Great War in a position of unquestioned economic supremacy. With vast stores of all the necessary resources, amply equipped with capital, the country has entered the field as the most dangerous rival that the other capitalist nations must face. Possessed of everything, including the means of providing a navy of any reasonable size and an army of any necessary number, the United States looms as the dominating economic factor in the capitalist world.

Imperial policy is frequently bold, rough and at times frankly brutal and unjust. Where subject peoples and weaker neighbors submit to the dictates of the ruling power there is no friction. But where the subject peoples or smaller states attempt to assert their rights of self-determination or of independence, the empire acts as Great Britain has acted in Ireland and in India; as Italy and France have acted in Africa; as Japan has acted in Korea; as the United States has acted in the Philippines, in Hayti, in Nicaragua, and in Mexico.

Plain men do not like these things. Animated by the belief in popular rights which is so prevalent among the western peoples, the masses resent imperial atrocities. Therefore it becomes necessary to surround imperial action with such an atmosphere as will convince the man on the street that the acts are necessary or else that they are inevitable.

When the Church and the State stood together the Czar and the Kaiser spoke for God as well as for the financial interests. There was thus a double sanction--imperial necessity coupled with divine authority. Those who were not willing to accept the necessity felt enough reverence for the authority to bow their heads in submission to whatever policy the masters of empire might inaugurate.

The course of empire upon which the United States has embarked involves a complete departure from all of the most cherished traditions of the American people. Economic, political and social theories must all be thrust aside. Liberty, equality and fraternity must all be forgotten and in their places must be erected new standards of imperial purpose that are acceptable to the economic and political masters of present day American life.

The American people have been taught the language of liberty. They believe in freedom for self-determination. Their own government was born as a protest against imperial tyranny and they glory in its origin and speak proudly of its revolutionary background. Americans are still individualists. Their lives and thoughts both have been provincial--perhaps somewhat narrow. They profess the doctrine "Live and let live" and in a large measure they are willing and anxious to practice it.

How is it possible to harmonize the Declaration of Independence with the subjugation of peoples and the conquest of territory? If governments "derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," and if it is the right of a people to alter or to abolish any government which does not insure their safety and happiness, then manifestly subjugation and conquest are impossible.

The letter and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence contradict the letter and spirit of imperial purpose word for word and line for line. There can be no harmony between these two theories of social life.

6. Advertising Imperialism

Since the tradition of the people of the United States and the necessities of imperialism are so utterly at variance, it becomes necessary to convince the American people that they should abandon their traditions and accept a new order of society, under which the will to power shall be substituted for liberty and fraternity. The ruling class of imperial Germany did this frankly and in so many words. The English speaking world is more adroit.

The first step in the campaign to advertise and justify imperialism is the teaching of a blind my-country-right-or-wrong patriotism. In the days preceding the war the idea was expressed in the phrase, "Stand behind the President." The object of this teaching is to instill in the minds of the people, and particularly of the young, the principles of "Deutschland über alles," which, in translation, means "America first." There are more than twenty million children in the public schools of the United States who are receiving daily lessons in this first principle of popular support for imperial policy.

Having taken this first step and made the state supreme over the individual will and conscience, the imperial class makes its next move--for "national defense." The country is made to appear in constant danger from attack. Men are urged to protect their homes and their families. They are persuaded that the white dove of peace cannot rest securely on anything less than a great navy and army large enough to hold off aggressors. The same forces that are most eager to preach patriotism are the most anxious about national preparedness.

Meanwhile the plain people are taught to regard themselves and their civilization as superior to anything else on earth. Those who have a different language or a different color are referred to as "inferior peoples." The people of Panama cannot dig a canal, the people of Cuba cannot drive out yellow fever, the people of the Philippines cannot run a successful educational system, but the people of the United States can do all of these things,--therefore they are justified in interfering in the internal affairs of Panama, Cuba and the Philippines. When there is a threat of trouble with Mexico, the papers refer to "cleaning up Mexico" very much as a mother might refer to cleaning up a dirty child.

Patriotism, preparedness and a sense of general superiority lead to that type of international snobbery that says, "Our flag is on the seven seas"; or "The sun never sets on our possessions"; or "Our navy can lick anything on earth." The preliminary work of "Education" has now been done; the way has been prepared.