Class, ^J/5 - Book, - J79 Copyright N° c^y / "3/ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. America's Conquest of Europe by DAVID STARR JORDAN Chancellor of Stanford University BOSTON AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION 1913 z., Copyright, 1913 AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION ©CI,A358480£ / TO HENRI LA FONTAINE SENATOR OF BELGIUM PROPHET OF INTERNATIONALISM PREFATORY NOTE The essay, "America's Conquest of Europe," was prepared at the request of Senator Henri La Fontaine, and published simultaneously at Brus- sels in the French language under the title, "Ce que l'Amerique peut Enseigner a 1' Europe." The second address, entitled "World Peace and the Treaty of Ghent," was delivered in English at a world congress of heads of secondary schools, held in Ghent, August 6, 1913. Qtonfrnis PAGE AMERICA'S CONQUEST OF EUROPE . . i La Fontaine's Appeal 3 America's Lapses 4 Internationalism in America .... 6 The English Note Dominant .... 7 The Melting Pot 8 The Anglo-Saxon Alliance .... 10 Interlocking Bonds of Civilization . . 11 American Democracy 13 "America Means Opportunity" ... 14 The Individual and the State . . . . 15 "Paris in America" 16 The Ideals of America 19 American Prosperity 20 The Democratic State 21 The Test of National Solidarity ... 22 American Federation 24 Nations as Jurisdictions 24 The Canadian Boundary 25 Nations as "Powers" 26 Contents; PAGE The United States of Europe .... 30 Open Diplomacy 32 The Secret Treaty 33 The Monroe Doctrine and the Drago Doctrine 35 The Control of the Sea Z7 The Separation of Religion from Politics 38 Justice and Benevolence 39 Labor and Capital 42 The Growth of Great Fortunes ... 42 The Rule of Property 43 Privilege in Democracy 45 Militarism in Democracy 46 The Man and the State 47 America and World Peace 48 The Movement of Civilization . . . . 51 Democracy and Peace 51 WORLD PEACE AND THE TREATY OF GHENT 52 Ammta'a GIflttqtrcBt flf iEurnp? I wish in this essay to say a serious word to the citizens of the great republic, to its future leaders in its thought and action. I wish them to think earnestly of the part American in- fluence must play in the world history of our century. It is for us to help cure the accumulated evils of the older civilization. Those men in Europe who look furthest into the future hope for the salvation of Europe through ideals brought back from practical service in America. One of these, Senator Henri La Fontaine, of Brussels, has asked me to write and to speak in his native country on the hope of his life, "The Conquest of Europe by America." I hasten to say that he does not mean conquest by force of arms, for we have no interest in such conquests and no belief that victories thus won result in any permanent good to any nation. Nor do we mean financial America's Conquest of OBurope conquests, the floating of imperial loans or the permeation of any part of European business by financiers from the New World. Still less do we celebrate a shoppers' contest on the Place de 1' Opera or among the dazzling bargains of the Bon Marche. Nor does the trail of American tourists who cross with silver the palms of Europe's servitors, all the way from Piccadilly to the Pyramids, awaken in me any pride of nation or of race. The only permanent conquest is that of ideas. America stands, has always stood, for two ideals from which she cannot escape, for they are fundamental in her origin and in her growth. These are internationalism and democracy, and these ideals, being invincible, must conquer America and, through her, reconquer Europe. And as both are incompatible with war, their final triumph marks the end of spoliation, of militarism, and of that relation between nations which breeds suspicion and hatred. The conquest of the world by the ideals of internationalism and democracy marks the coming of universal peace. [2] America's; Conquest of (Europe La Fontaine's Appeal In an address at Baltimore in 1911, La Fon- taine, the veteran prophet of international life, used these striking words : "Emigration, perhaps more than war, has de- prived the old historic countries of their most energetic and fittest ones to build the progressive and wealthy people you are on this side of the Atlantic. You are for us Europeans the beloved Brotherland. Do not forget that Europe is al- ways and will still remain for you the beloved Motherland. Europe is now for America what Greece was for Europe. Europe has liberated Greece. America has to liberate Europe from its burdens, its prejudices, its hatreds. It is your duty, it is your highest duty, to reconcile outside your borders the people you have reconciled within your borders. For indeed, the American people is at present the true international people. It is the elect people which alone can further in- ternationalism and can transform all of the peoples of the earth into a family of nations, a [3] America's Conquest of Europe brotherhood of men, an international people. For colonization is not mainly done by men and by capital, but also by ideas, by example, by experiment." America's Lapses We may freely admit in the beginning that America has not always been true to her own ideals, and that she has not always clearly seen her own future. She has had her own lapses, moral and social, some of these because of associations with Europe and through imitation of glories alien to her history. If she had been true to herself she would never have known a single foreign war. She has no part in those greeds and jealousies of money or of race which still keep up turmoil in Europe. Her war with Spain, with its eagerness for exploitation, its tinsel imperialism and its pride of participation in "world politics," repre- sents the worst of these lapses, and its evil effects are long in passing. But though the inception of this affair was European in method, its continu- ance has been characteristically American. In- [4] america'0 Conquest of (Europe stead of exploitation, we have brought to the Philippines education and sanitation. We have expended on them a hundred times more than we have received, and if ever imperialism can be respectable we have made it so. Another false movement has been in the build- ing of warships and forts in America. This lacks the motive for similar extravagances in Europe, because the peace of the new world is nowhere threatened. But with us, as everywhere, the military spirit grows with the money spent on it. The more mouths fed by the State the greater the clamor for the feeding of still more. We have also to reckon with the desire for giant decora- tion, for big navies for sheer bigness' sake, the feeling that this is the richest and most progress- ive nation on the globe, and that as such she can beat old Europe at her own game even though that game be not worth the candle. But with all lapses and delinquencies the fact of internationalism and the ideal of democracy have been and must always remain with the United States, and from the United States these [5] America's Conquest of (Europe ideals will react with greater and greater force on the thoughts and deeds of Europe. Internationalism in America Internationalism is the heritage of America, not of choice at first, but of necessity. She has perforce grown up with this ideal, because no other was possible. She became the cosmopoli- tan nation of the world because of her complex origin. With this origin she could be nothing else. In a new civilization, in the struggles of the frontier each man is rated for what he is worth. Under these conditions no one cares for the petty precedences of rank or race. What a man can do in the next twenty-four hours out- values any question as to who were his an- cestors. On a railway train not long ago some one was overheard to say: "This is the land where all hate dies. My father was German; my mother was French. What do I care for all that? I am an American. The old hatreds and rivalries are nothing to me." [6] america'g Conquest of (Europe The English Note Dominant America was English first. In language, in spirit, in conscience and in government it is still England which dominates. For the English race, above all others, with its adaptation for cooperation and for compromise, is the builder of free states. It was the chosen among the Englishmen of three centuries ago who founded the germ colo- nies of Virginia and Maine and Massachusetts Bay. In the following years it has been the like- minded from their own nation and from others who have crossed the seas to enter into their work. The first who came were the bold, the free, the self-ruling, the pleasure-scorning element of Eng- lish life. They came to escape from the state- church and the church-state that they might worship in their own fashion and according to dictates of their individual consciences. They detested the law of primogeniture, which thrust the hated spirit of precedence into the bosom of every family. They abhorred the law of entail, [7] America's Conquest of (Europe which burdened the land with the curse of privi- lege even to unborn generations. They had caught from France the spirit of liberty, equality, fraternity, but, as befits the calmer blood of the north, they gave this spirit a constructive interpretation, and the idea of equality was to them especially rich in practical results. Equality before the law, equal access to land, to education, to professions and trades, equal access to legislation, — each of these con- ceptions broadened out into the spirit of democ- racy. And after England came other nations of Europe, each with its own part and in its own degree, giving its contingent of free-born men. The admixture of blood gave strength and ver- satility to the rising nation. But withal, the dominant note is English still, with as many di- vergences from the England of to-day as from the England of the Stuarts. "The Melting Pot" In later years other immigration has come, not [8] America's Conquest of (Europe alone the bold in search of adventure, of new homes and new freedoms, but the weak and the oppressed, "the beaten men of the beaten races," who flee from war taxation in search of living wages and of daily bread. But all these are cast into the same melting pot and in most of them there arises a clear response to the call of free institutions. In this melting pot of America all the old racial antipathies disappear and all hereditary hatreds. There is no final distinction of British or German, of French or Italian, of Spanish or Slav, of Dutch or Scandinavian, or of Jew or Gentile. The average American is as cosmo- politan in origin and relationship as is royalty in Europe, though for a different set of reasons. But in America there is no distinction of common or noble, of high or low, of aristocracy, bourgeoisie or proletariat, except as these are artificially emphasized in the industrial strife we have in- herited from Europe. [9] America's; Conquest of dButope The Anglo-Saxon Alliance To the international mind of America, there seems no need or pertinence for an Anglo-Saxon alliance as against any other people. In so far as such alliance is desirable or humanly possible it exists already in a common sympathy and a common literature. It would be weakened by a stated agreement of the Anglo-Saxon group to swell each other's fleets with dreadnaughts. The true bond of union of the Greater Britain in- volves no rupture with the Greater Germany or the Greater France or the Greater Scandinavia to which we in America likewise claim allegiance. To the American, "Pan-Germanism," "Pan- Slavism," as he hears these expounded, seem a meaningless return to ideals of the Middle Ages. They remind him of the Holy Roman Empire, which never was, and should never be; or still more they hark back to Pan-Islam, — the futile dream of the fighting Turk. There is nothing in aggrandizement of race, as such, which appeals to the American, the child of all European races. That such races are en- [IO] america'0 Conquest of Cutope nobled by conquest of lesser tribes and by their undigested exploitation he does not believe. In the eyes of the American even England's great- ness does not rest on her Indian Empire, but rather in spite of it. Interlocking Bonds of Civilization Within the last forty years there has grown up a new world in Europe, a new world in civiliza- tion. The old conception of the states of Europe as opposed to one another and mutually destruc- tive must pass away in the broader aspects of civilization. The days of Bismarck are almost as far away in the perspective of history as are those of his great prototype, the Hun, Attila. The growth of international life is one of the most striking features of this new relation. The extension of travel, the spread of commerce, the achievements of science, the exchanges in educa- tion, all these tend to make a great melting pot of the whole civilized world. Neither in his business, in his pleasures, nor in his intellectual pursuits is the educated man anywhere limited [»] America's; Conquest of (Europe to any one country. All rational human interests are connected by interlocking bonds of many kinds, joining one people with another. The hundreds of international congresses held every summer the world over and covering almost every general in- terest of men is the strongest possible evidence of this interlocking, and all this constitutes an in- ternational bond not to be lightly severed. A declaration of war between nations is now little less than an attack on civilization in all its most cherished aspects, social, moral, as well as finan- cial. The lines of national policy taken for granted a half century ago are fast becoming impossible, their very suggestion being ruinous. And into this melting pot the nations of Asia must enter, not by mixture of blood but by align- ment of spirit, each in the proportion to which it has been reached by the spirit of internationalism. The influence of America tends toward in- ternational conciliation. It involves the recogni- tion of men as men, each valued for what he is or what he can do. Blood, origin, education, — each of these has its place, but only as a factor in [12] ameuca'0 Conquest of (Europe the final result, the qualities on which each man is judged. This is the spirit of the Vie Internationale, the common life and common sympathy among civil- ized people, regardless of national boundaries. This international life constitutes the final and lasting basis of international peace. American Democracy As the history of America rests on international- ism, so is her social fabric built on democracy. Historically her democracy has a double origin. Its theory was French, its practice was English. The French philosophers furnished the one, the reaction against British methods the other. For inequality before the law is the foundation of the polity of Great Britain. Her constitu- tion stands on privilege. Her social customs rest on precedence of classes, precedence of individuals. England chooses her lords and magnates, her patrons and tyrants, long before they are born. These belong to her system of privilege by which cities like Westminster, Sheffield, Devonport, [13] america'0 Conquest of (Europe Arundel, were so long held, virtually tax-free, by men whose ancestors received their lands as royal gifts or bought them as cow pastures. The law of favor rises above the law of justice. "America Means Opportunity" But men of the pioneer type, the Roundhead, the Pilgrim, the Puritan, the American, have hated favor and privilege and precedence of every form. The toll of the rich and the dole of the poor are alike offensive to them. And this dis- like of over-reaching and of coddling has passed over to their descendants. John Hay once said of the people of the new state of Ohio: "They looked on no one as their superiors, and on none as their inferiors. They knew no want they could not themselves satisfy," and to this Senator Bayard added the further note, "They were too self-willed and independent to allow any to rule over them but themselves." This in a word is the spirit of democracy, of the democracy of the pioneer if you like, but America is the land of pioneers, and this fact still [h] America's Conquest of (Europe influences all her acts and her institutions. Her people find their political ideals in an equal start with equal opportunity, in equality before the law, in equal access to the land, in equal access to education, in equal access to legislation. The Individual and the State The nation is built of individuals, each re- sponsible for himself. The state is a mutual adjustment for their collective benefit. The individual in America does not live for the state. He is not the property of the state. The state has no control over him except that which the individual has delegated. No supreme right of conscription or of manhandling is reserved by the state. It is no part of the duty of the state to promote his prosperity or the prosperity of his group. The state is rather the umpire which decides questions of justice, the servant by which the needs of the many are met by cooperation in so far as these needs are general and consonant with ideals of justice. As the founders of our state were frontiersmen [is] amenta's Conquest of (Europe scattered far and wide, without cities, without corporations, without great collective utilities, their democracy became that of individualism. The demands of society, of collective action, of national power were little considered because such demands did not exist, and they have never existed in the forms in which Europe knows them. And for this reason, if for no other, the native American has not often been attracted to the various doctrines called socialism in Europe. Like conditions produce like results, and the growth of industrialism with its successes and its oppressions brings the same reactions here as in Europe. But as a matter of fact, those who take part in these reactions are for the most part recent immigrants, whose ideals of government even in democracy are collective, standing in strong contrast with the individualistic democ- racy native to the soil. "Paris in America" Fifty years ago, in 1863, Edouard Laboulaye published his remarkable book, "Paris en Ameri- [16] america'0 Conquest of (Europe que" (Paris in America). Its motive was to show what a great city might become under the conditions of freedom which prevailed in America. This America was idealized, of course. It rep- resented the noblest ideals of free-born men, rather than the actual America, where the forces of democracy must strive with all the other forces extant in modern civilization. The influence of this volume was widespread and long-continued. It was my fortune to know two men of power, the one a Dane, the other a Swiss, who were drawn to America by the charm of Laboulaye and who were not disappointed. They found what they sought, and this is a perennial characteristic of the republic. Who- ever comes to America, and with whatever motive, will find what he seeks. If he remains long enough and has penetration to look below the sur- face he will find America. If one seeks religious freedom he will find it. Our fathers provided for that. Whatever form or type of religious discipline he seeks he will find accordingly, but its discipline is voluntary, not [17] America's Conquest of (Europe enforced by the state. If one would escape from all religious influence he can do so in America. It is for him to choose. If one sjeeks for class distinctions, for domina- tion of the great over the small, hereditary or otherwise, he will find it, but personal and local only, not wrought into the fabric of society. If one would find privilege enthroned even as in Europe he will find it in America just as power- ful as in Europe, but everywhere surrounded by an equally powerful movement of insurgency. If one would find greed, selfishness, lust, vanity, intolerance, anything which belongs to the dregs of human life, he will find it in America, and it may be embodied in powerful and defiant institu- tions. For freedom guarantees only freedom, and the meaning of freedom is opportunity. In Laboulaye's work the official Napoleonic view, which "Paris in America" takes as its point of departure, is thus expressed. "A society with- out administration, without army, without police, with the savage liberty of praying, speaking, writing, acting, — each in his fashion, — would not [18] America's Conquest of Europe last a quarter of an hour. It is the negation of all these principles, of all the conditions of this civilization, which makes the unity of our French nation. In constituting our administration, hier- archical and centralized, the wisdom of our fathers has long since raised France to the first rank and shown to the French people that liberty is obedience. There is our glory and our force."* The Ideals of America The ideal of America reverses all this. It is the building up of a society in which the govern- ment stands only for justice. The democratic state does not concern itself with right worship or wrong worship, with right thinking or wrong thinking, with writing truth or writing falsehood, with right acts or words or ceremonies, except as abuse of liberty may infringe on the liberty of * "Une societe sans administration, sans armee, sans gen- darmes, avec la liberte sauvage de prier, de penser, de parler, d'ecrire, d'agir, chacun a sa fagon ne dureraitpas un quart d'heure. C'est la negation de tous ces principes, de toutes les conditions de cette civilization qui fait l'unite de la nation franchise. En constituant notre administra- tion hierarchisee et centralisee, la sagesse de nos peres a depuis longtemps eleve la France au premier rang et appris aux Frangais que la liberte c'est l'obeissance. C'est la notre gloire et notre force." [19] America's Conquest of (Europe others. The state is not pious, benevolent, kind, generous, because these personal virtues cannot be exercised by officialism. The paternalism of the state is the foundation of tyranny. Privilege to the poor means privilege to the rich; privi- lege to the rich means privilege to the poor, but always the more powerful arm secures the greater privilege. The essence of democracy is that no one, rich or poor, should have a lease on privilege. American Prosperity The wealth of our republic does not rest on its great sweep of prairies, its mines or its com- merce. Its primal source is in its free schools, its freedom of movement, its freedom of choice of trade or profession. The results of this freedom can be measured in money as well as in power. Now as ever, "America means opportunity," opportunity for each man and woman to prepare for the work he can do best, opportunity for each to find his place in life, opportunity for the work that needs to be done to find the man who can do it. It is for each man in America to plan his [20] America's Conquest of (Europe own career, to abolish his own poverty, to make his own escape "from status to contract." The democracy of America can acknowledge no mas- ters. It has servants, not rulers, in its official life and the power that makes these is adequate to set them aside. The Democratic State While every conception in Europe has its re- flex in America, while every idea of administra- tion from absolutism to anarchy finds its earnest advocates, no other ideal seems likely to displace the fundamental one of democratic individualism developed by the fathers of the republic. This ideal was expressed by Lincoln, as long before him by Aristotle. It is the function of the state to establish justice among men and to per- form those acts of common necessity, contribu- ting to the preservation and enjoyment of human life which collective action can accomplish better than private effort. Further than that, democ- racy, which is simply enforced cooperation, should not go. By the fact that no theory of [21] amenca'0 Conquest of (Europe government in America is pushed beyond the con- sideration of its practical results, the republic escapes the choice of any single one among the hundreds of remedies for political ills. There is no possibility of the adoption of anarchism, socialism, collectivism or individualism or any other system as an exclusive and excluding finality. The people of America are interested in actual results rather than any form of logical necessity as a ground for political action. The Test of National Solidarity The test of national solidarity may be found in its freedom from the need of force in the conduct of its affairs. Let us imagine, if we can, a catastrophe which should remove from the United States every representative of coercive power, every official of whatever rank from the President to the last notary public, every representative of army or of navy or of church, every policeman, every authority of whatever kind. Such a loss might create widespread bewilder- ment or profound sorrow. It would have no [22] America's Conquest of (Europe relation to anarchy. Except among certain un- assimilated foreign populations in large cities it would lead to no violence, to no riots. The functions of national life would go on as before, all of them, and unchanged. One by one com- munities would come together and provide for the election of officers. Let us apply the same test to other nations. In the France of Napoleon III we are assured that without force society would not endure "for a quarter of an hour." What would be the result in Germany to-day 4 ? No one can tell. The German is endlessly patient, even under needless burdens. What would he do, if burdens were all suddenly thrown off, if "Strengstens Ver- boten" the motto of Prussian rule, were suddenly found to have no force behind it*? The lesson of democracy is therefore the lesson of the United States. It teaches the true source of power. It is no new lesson. The people of the United States are merely European people who have had some additional experience, have learned some things in their travels, perhaps for- [23] America's Conquest of Europe getting some others equally important. In like manner the choicest thoughts and worthiest ideals of America are thoughts and ideals long before treasured by the advanced minds of Europe. American Federation Another lesson from America is that of effec- tive federation. The United States is composed of forty-eight self-governing states, each an entity within itself, managing its own affairs, with its own officials and its own laws, controlled by the nation in those interests only which it shares with its sister states. Some of these states are as popu- lous and wealthy as the kingdoms of Europe, but each is a jurisdiction, not a power. None can make war alone, either by force of arms or force of tariffs or by force of discrimination among nations. While there is all machinery for settling disputes between states, such disputes never arise, because no state has the right to use its force to promote private business. Nations as Jurisdictions The states in a federal union exist solely as [24] Smetica'* Conquest of (Europe jurisdictions. The small ones have no fear of the large ones, and those not touching the sea suffer in no way from their restricted position. A "power" hampered as is the state of Illinois would chafe against its limitations, and its militar- ists would talk of fighting their way to the ocean. But viewed as a jurisdiction, surrounded by similar jurisdictions, the people of Illinois have no consciousness of limitation. And this should be our ultimate conception of a nation. Its boundary line should represent merely the limit of jurisdiction. That jurisdic- tion ceases does not imply need of violence be- tween the people on the two sides, nor require fortification for the purpose of repelling violence. The Canadian boundary is an example of this meeting of nations not as powers but as jurisdic- tions. The Canadian Boundary This four- thousand-mile line, ranging through all kinds of territory and all sorts of conditions, has for nearly a hundred years not known a fort- [25] america^ Conquest of GButope ress, a soldier, a warship or a gun. It is a peace boundary, the limit of the jurisdiction of one self- governing nation, the beginning of that of another. It lacks but one thing to make it ideally perfect, — the removal of the custom-house, the emblem of national suspicion and greed, the remnant of the days when it was considered good economics for a nation to "have its taxes paid by foreigners." Nations as "Powers" Viewed as "great powers" devoted to the ex- ploitation of the wealth of other regions, the leading nations of Europe are in constant turmoil. The German Empire, for example, is hampered on every side. Her scant sea-coast is split in two by the presence of Denmark. Her German Rhine discharges itself through Holland. The ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ostend, geographically hers, are occupied by alien people whom she could crush out in a moment, were it not for the physical force of the rest of Europe and, still more effective, the moral power of the world. Of Poland she has too much or too little. [26] America's Conquest of (Europe A large part of the German people live in the alien empire of Austria-Hungary and in the re- public of Switzerland, while after forty years of possession, German scarcely owns Alsace or Lorraine. These states are a thorn in the side of the Empire, a burden and a weakness, just so long as their two millions of people are held in semi-vassalhood by the rule of force. A free republic of Alsace-Lorraine, a second Switzer- land, half-German, half-French, separating and joining two great nations would be a strength and an inspiration to both. The twin gateways of the Rhine held by the power of blood and iron now form a center of menace to civilization. For the wrong done at the Treaty of Frankfort forty years ago Europe has had to pay most dearly, for it is around the question of Alsace-Lorraine that half the crushing armament of Europe has been built up. In the discord this has engendered the great armament builders who know no nation- ality have found their opportunity. Germany is hemmed in everywhere by the scare of old strug- gles, to her perennial discomfort. For this reason [27] America's Conquest of (Europe she suffers from the "Drang nach Osten" she seeks a road to the Persian Gulf, an empire over seas, and every form of imperial extension to lands "under the sun," which may for the moment seem plausible or possible. But Germany as a jurisdiction suffers none of these limitations. She has all the power which can be used for her people's good. It matters nothing that her sway is checked on almost every side before it reaches the sea. Other jurisdic- tions intervene, and each of these looks in its way after the public needs of man, which are mostly justice, conservation, education, sanitation and peace. As one of the "great powers" of the world, Germany (with her fellow states as well) is a center of friction, injustice and unrest. As a jurisdiction Germany is busy with profitable and constantly advancing industries, with her won- derful system of education and her extensive pro- vision for all the people's needs. No enlarge- ment of boundaries could in the least increase the usefulness, the wealth or the happiness of her [281 America** Conquest of Europe people. As a "power" Germany is a menace to the well-being of civilization, as every other "power" of similar nature must be in its degree. For the prosperity of every people depends on international peace, and all power-manifesta- tions are either actual or potential war. The peace of force is merely frustrate war. War is a form of world-sickness from which every function of civilization suffers, and most of all those bonds of common thought and common interest summed up in internationalism. To us in America as members of an international com- monwealth, German in blood and in sympathy as well as English, all these destructive rivalries of nation with nation seem mediaeval and un- worthy. There is, in fact, something primitive, outworn and unprogressive in the spectacle of a civilized nation composed of millions of clever people trusting for its defense to forts and ships. With all the resources of business, of science, of education, of thought, to depend on force seems a lazy, even cowardly, shirking of the higher possibilities of national strength. To be sur- [29] America's Conquest of (Europe rounded by armed guards, "holding the drop" on all commercial rivals, is not a lofty conception of a nation's greatness. This attitude has been as disastrous to England's own peace of mind as it has been menacing to the world's welfare. To escape from this condition is not a matter of a day nor a generation. It is not easy for America even to emancipate herself from reaction- ary influences of Europe. There are many in- terests in a wealthy nation who find an aid or an affinity in militarism. Debt creates debt, and those interested in spending band together against reform. These matters proceed by slow progress, in- terrupted by reaction. We are in a period of relapse at present, when reactionary forces seem to be in the ascendant. But this very fact with its burdens and horrors may be counted on to turn the balance in the other direction. The United States of Europe There will be no formal federation of nations in this era. Indeed, federation in fact will come [30] america'0 Conquest of (Europe long before it comes in name. The United States of Europe will exist before it receives a distinctive title. A single unified world-government with centralized rule under one set of men at some one place is only a dream, — and not a cheerful dream at that. What the world needs is more self-control, more local responsibility, not more governmental machinery. Nevertheless, every step in removing injustice, in eliminating sources of friction, in extending common interests, — as the postal union, the telegraph union, inter- national law, international police duties, inter- national conferences and congresses, arbitration treaties and other agreements, — are steps in the direction of the passing of war. To this end, three great contributing agencies are: the growth of the popular conscience, the interlocking of personal interests, and the ruinous expense which the progress of science has brought to every branch of the military art. All this has its part in the great movement toward common international life, "La Vie Inter- nationale" of the dreams of La Fontaine, a life [31] America's Conquest of Europe which shall make war impossible, and will, in time, do away with exploitations, with tariff barriers and with all the products of that narrow nativism which considers only the purposes of enrichment of the selfish few, the one in-group against all the out-groups of the world. Open Diplomacy Another lesson which the United States may teach is the value of open diplomacy. A secret treaty or a secret agreement of any kind on the part of our Department of State has no validity whatever. It was a warning of Washington that his nation should beware of entangling alliances. A formal alliance is for the purpose of making enemies, never of making friends. Friendship among nations rests on common interests, on the interlocking of minds, the interlocking of trade. In the United States a treaty can be entered into only with the open and public consent of the Senate. Every international relation is there- fore open to the world. No minister, no presi- dent, no group of men whatever can secretly [32] America's Conquest of OButope pledge the nation to any line of action. No president, no cabinet, no minister, no congress acting alone can make any declaration of public policy. For these reasons the United States must, stand outside the tangled snare of concessions and intrigues we call world politics. She must play her games of diplomacy with open hands. She cannot be the secret friend of any other nation. She cannot be the secret enemy, because all her acts, friendly or hostile, are known to all the world. The Secret Treaty The secret treaty in the interest of imperial spoliation is the bane of Europe. It ties each foreign office to the service of the most reckless and greedy of its great exploiting interests. It has reduced the chancelleries of more than one nation to be nothing more than the firm name under which its exploiting corporations compass their ends in Asia or in Africa. The secret treaty is a relic of the military state. The civilized world is still organized on [33] l D l America's Conquest of (Europe the mediaeval theory that war is a natural function to be expected in the normal course of events, not a hideous moral, physical, and financial catastro- phe. In the old theory as expounded by Machi- avelli, the prince has no other business but war. It is the duty of his ministers to find weak places in the defenses of other kings through which war may be successful, and to find, after the fact, excuses by which war can be justified. The secret treaty, the concession to a friendly power, the artificial interference with a rival, — all these belong to the days of Machiavelli. If all par- ties concerned could come out into the open, where the United States is forced to stand, we should soon have an end to the great European rivalry of to-day. The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente which follows it as a shadow, — neither the one nor the other represents any idea or pur- pose of any permanent value to the world. Outworn ideas of national glory, outworn fig- ures of speech as to national purposes, outworn medievalism in our conception of the state, — all these find expression in the "secret treaty," the [34] ametica's Conquest of Cutope "entangling alliance," which is a chief obstacle in the way of the conciliation of nations. The Monroe Doctrine and the Drago Doctrine Historically, the influence of America has been exerted in opposition to imperialism and to in- fringement of the great nations on the rights of the small. This is the inception of the Monroe Doctrine, which, in spite of its perversion and its wrong accentuation, has protected Latin America from the fate of Africa. That this should now be a Pan-American, not merely an American, doc- trine of the United States, goes without saying. And it must never be allowed to degenerate into "a Dollar Diplomacy" which would reserve Trop- ical America as a special "sphere of influence" for American exploitation. For the true and final form of the Monroe Doctrine is found in the Drago Doctrine of the republics of South America, that the force of arms should not be used as an in- strument in industrial spoliation. This doctrine the people of the United States should adopt as their own. [35] amenca'0 Conquest of (Europe In a recent decision of arbitration the King of Sweden laid down this principle: that a na- tion "has no right to land troops in order to pre- serve the property or the rights of her nationals." This principle has been disregarded in the strang- ling of Persia, the rape of Mongolia and of Tibet, in the chronic robbery of China, and in the annex- ation of Egypt, of Korea, of Morocco and of Trip- oli. But it is for all that a just and honorable principle. No nation, by virtue of superior strength or superior civilization, is justified in tak- ing possession of another for its good, still less for the good of its own exploiting industries. It is true that some of the smaller nations of the tropics are subject to violent political disturb- ances. They have not learned the value of lib- erty as regulated by law. Yet it is highly prob- able that not one in ten of these periodical revolu- tions is of spontaneous native origin. Most of them are started for purposes of spoliation by out- side adventurers and a large majority are paid for by agents belonging to one or more of the great commercial nations of the earth. When the [36] America's Conquest of (Europe final truth is known of unhappy Mexico the re- sponsibility for her disorders will rest not on her martyred president, nor on the soldiers of fortune by whose hands he fell, but on those, wherever situated, whose money has kept these revolutions going. Mexico, with fatal riches of oil and gold, is not the first nation to be torn asunder by con- flicting "spheres of influence." The Control of the Sea The influence of the republic has been always thrown against another form of imperialism in- volved in the phrase "Control of the Sea." America has never claimed any such control, nor has she admitted any such right of others. It is a mediseval idea going back four hundred years to the time when the great seas were divided be- tween Spain and Portugal. America has stood for the open sea, the restriction of national jurisdic- tion to the three-mile limit, the extermination of piracy, and in later years for the most important doctrine of the immunity of merchant vessels from seizure or destruction in time of war. To make [37] amenta's Conquest of (Europe the high seas an open highway to be traversed at any time in absolute safety by any vessel whatever would go far toward doing away with interna- tional war, and still further in removing the heavy and dangerous burden of naval protection. If all military operations at sea could be confined to the limit of a cannon shot from the shore, the original motive of the three-mile limit of juris- diction, it would represent one of the most prac- tical triumphs of civilization. The nations should join to make the ocean safe for their mu- tual use. It is a monstrous anachronism to fill it with floating fortresses designed to protect mer- chant ships from robbery by the very persons with whom they trade. It is never good business, as Franklin once observed, "to knock your custo- mers on the head." The Separation of Religion from Politics Still another lesson from America is the divorce of religion from political control and therefore from the domain of politics. Absolute religious freedom exists in America because the state as- [38] America's Conquest of (Europe sumes no relation of any kind to religious corpor- ations as such. So long as these do not interfere with the freedom of soul or body of men not be- longing to them, their acts do not concern the state. And on no one policy is there more firm agreement in America, than in the absolute sep- aration of church and state. The public school exists everywhere at the public expense, and no- where can any sect or group of sects claim any dominating relation in regard to it. To the aver- age American the strife over church properties and church interests, so real in Europe, seems in- comprehensible. The church, any church, is in every way better off for separation from the gov- ernment. Whatever achievement, whatever prog- ress it may make is its own, and this progress is solid, because it involves no ulterior politi- cal end. Justice and Benevolence Connected with the freedom of the church is the freedom of the people from other forms of pater- nalism. The state becomes benevolent only [39] America's Conquest of Europe when it has failed to be just. It allows special opportunities to individuals only where it has denied opportunity to men at large. The "old-age pension" is a convenient illustra- tion. It has been justly compared to the free pass homeward granted to the human wrecks who have lost their all in the gambling rooms of Monte Carlo. It is the shilling given to the man run over by my lord's automobile. In a better sys- tem he would not have been run over. He would not have lost his money in a vile resort. He would not have needed an outside pittance to carry him through old age. The "old-age pension" exists in England as a convenient balm for inequality and injustice. The best of her workers have died in her wars, leaving a weaker stock from which she has bred. These have grown up unskilled, in default of the schools that make men strong. They have grown up in the atmosphere of the public house, sodden with lust and beer and whisky. They have lost the opportunity that should be theirs, and at the end their fellows must be taxed to feed them. [40] america'0 Conquest erf OButope The tragedy of the East End of London is no nor- mal part of the tragedy of life. It is no part of normal civilization. It is no part of a nation which has given opportunity. But in America, a new country, fresh, unspoiled, full of life and hope, it is possible to hold govern- ment to its rigid purpose, to develop opportunity by the elimination of privilege, teach men to lean not on government but on themselves, and to aid by fraternal giving those who have fallen in the press; not to weaken by unearned public money those who are falling but who can be made to stand. The way of the transgressor is hard and we would not make it easier if we could ; we could not if we would. To give a man a chance to rise, is to allow him also the choice to fall. The "old-age pension" is, so far as it goes, a confession of failure of government. Except as a measure of emergency, its real purpose in Eng- land, it has no justification in good government. Clean up the social atmosphere, restore to the people what is rightfully theirs, and they will care, rare accidents excepted, for their own old age. [41] america's Conquest of Europe Labor and Capital In America the struggle between labor and capital can never assume the form it has in Eu- rope. In a government which stands for justice, and which is in no way occupied with making money for its people, nor from its people, nor in supporting exploiting interests in other lands, there is no visible necessity for universal collec- tive ownership. Where classes do not really exist there is no pertinence in the artificial distinc- tions of aristocracy, proletariat and bourgeoisie which have been so laboriously brought over from Europe. If these distinctions exist, most of us in America belong to one single class, that of the bourgeoisie. The use of violence in social dis- agreements is treason to democracy. For under democracy there can be no permanent classes, and no disagreements which cannot be settled in peace. The Growth of Great Fortunes There exist in America, as elsewhere, vast for- tunes, disproportionate to the ability or the ef- forts of those who control them. But their his- [42] America's Conquest of (Europe tory has been of short duration. They are not legacies from an unjust past. Their origin be- longs to the present. It is mainly individual. Great luck, great skill or ingeniously managed privilege stands behind each of them. By the same means as in Europe, by cooperation through interlocking directorates, these great fortunes have been made to stand together and thus by a process of financial suction to build up fortunes still greater. But one most important difference exists. Our national government, in theory and for the most part in fact, stands aloof from these combinations. The control of public affairs, even of financial matters, is in the long run beyond their reach. Their influence on foreign diplomacy is limited because no secret influence can control, and the power of money for evil is mostly lost in publicity. In all their operations, they are sur- rounded by an alert and in the long run victorious opposition of democracy. The Rule of Property In America property may rule, but only foi a time. In the earlier centuries of Europe, the [43] America's Conquest of (Europe period of Absolutism, when monarchy was a po- litical power, not a function of society, it was of course true that property ruled. The ruler held the property. It was his by force of position. Not until the money lenders of the last century, the Unseen Empire of Finance, secured the strangle hold on the nations of Europe was this condition brought to an end. Then again property ruled, but kings and nobles no longer held the property. Property held them. In Europe to-day money rules, and it rules king and peasant alike, for in most nations everything else hinges on the imperial exploitation of foreign lands. In America this is true in a degree, but the rule of money has its visible limits. The United States belongs to its people, not the people to the state. While in Europe generally, the alliance be- tween financial interests and the government is open and avowed, such connections in America have proved fatal to political leaders and to po- litical parties. The methods by which the "pow- [44] america's Conquest of (Europe ers of Europe" through their foreign offices bolster up adventures in foreign lands could not be used in America. The diplomacy of persuasion, threats or force of arms in the interest of private ventures would be impossible here. The people might consent to "Dollar Diplomacy," but only until its nature is understood. The recent repu- diation of our relation to the "Six-Power Loan" to China will serve as a case in point. Privilege in Democracy And here again we must admit that our demo- cratic conception of government has to struggle for acceptance in America. The protective tariff in theory and in practice is a direct contradiction of its principles. It is a flat violation of the spirit of the American constitution. It is privilege pure and simple granted to the few by the many, in the belief that in the long run the many would profit by it. Its purpose was to diversify indus- tries by letting the farmer help pay the expenses of the manufacturer. It has had just that effect, and the farmer and the laborer are becoming in- ameuca'0 Conquest of (Europe creasingly discontented with its burdens and the inequalities before the law which are part and parcel of its operations. Militarism in Democracy In America the army and navy, though the latter has grown beyond all reason through the rivalry from England and Germany, still repre- sent a democratic ideal. We still hold to the thought that our officers are not rulers but serv- ants of the people. Our military element stands near the parting of the ways, for all officialism tends to aggrandize itself, most of all that which is associated with pomp and with patriotism. Militarism for its own sake belongs to the state in which property rules. "It furnishes," says John A. Hobson, "a profitable support to certain strong vested inter- ests. It is a decorative element in social life and, above all, it is necessary to keep down the pres- sure of the forces of internal reform." The ideals of militarism and democracy can never exist together. And this nation is too far [46] America's! Conquest of (Europe given over to democracy ever to do more than dally with the military ideal. In a nation that knows no caste and has no aristocracy other than temporary and self-selected, no military traditions will ever be permanent. There can never be a warrior caste holding special privilege or special authority. Military conscription, the manhand- ling of the individual in the interest of the state, is a defiance of democracy. The Man and the State As a people, we of the United States are too rich in resources of wealth, of education and of in- telligence to be controlled by influences of militar- ism. And thus and for the same reasons, in the republic of America, the state exists for the man, not the man for the state. This is the funda- mental difference between German polity and our own. It is the fundamental difference between the Eighteenth Century and Twentieth. And let us speed the day when it may be said not only that "America means Opportunity" but that the same hopeful word may be spoken of Germany [47] ameuca'0 Conquest of (Europe and England and France and Russia and of all the nations of the sisterhood of civilization. America and World Peace Within the last few months the President and the Secretary of State have planned a most prac- tical and effective means of bringing American in- fluence to bear on the problems of world peace. The end in view is to relegate war to a position of last resort in times of international difference, to place soldiers and dreadnaughts in the back- ground, — not in the front of national movement. The essence of this American policy is that in case of friction between nations the matter be placed for six months in the hands of a joint high commission of investigation, chosen in part from the contending nations, the majority from friendly neutrals. These for six months shall study the question at issue, neither nation in the meantime demonstrating, mobilizing or increas- ing the armament, until the final report is made. After this each nation is free to choose concilia- tion, concession, compromise, arbitration or war. [48] America's Conquest of (Europe And with six months to think it over, there will be no war. The topic will leave the front pages of the newspapers and the populace will turn its vagrant attention to something else. Wars are waged for greed, for politics, or because the mob has been stirred by senseless speech for reckless journalism. And in many cases this reckless journalism has been carefully calculated and fully paid for by those interested in the sale of the ac- cessories of war. The treaty of arbitration will naturally follow on the treaty for investigation. Courts will nat- urally supplement results of friendly offices. But the agreement for friendly conference comes first and is for the present the more important. The treaty of arbitration is most valuable, — not as preventing war, for a nation bent on war, if there is such a case, will not stop to agree to ar- bitrate. The world is finally ruled by public opinion. Arbitration treaties clinch public opin- ion and hold it to its duty. The present decade has been characterized by needless, costly and brutal wars, the result not of [49] America's Conquest of (Europe actual conditions of to-day, but of blunders and crimes committed in the past. Wars do not spring up afresh in our civilization. They spring from old wars whose seeds were not destroyed by peace. But however dark the present outlook may seem with half the coined money of the world spent each year on war and war's accessories, the far outlook is most promising. The cruel horror of the Balkan war, of the "Squalid War" and the "Mad War" into which the war for freedom lapsed at last, the waste of armed peace and frustrate war throughout the civilized world, — all these make powerfully for peace, for real peace, — the peace of law and trust, and not the peace of force and dread. And just now is the time when American in- fluence can be most definitely crystallized and made effective. And we are thankful that we have in the seats of authority men who definitely work for peace and whom war and war's fripper- ies do not dazzle nor attract. [So] America's Conquest of (Europe The Movement of Civilization Lord Acton thus sums up the movement of civilization: "It is by the combined efforts of the weak made under compulsion to resist the reign of force and constant wrong, that, in the rapid change and slow progress of four hundred years, Liberty has been preserved and secured and extended and finally understood." Democracy and Peace And as America comes to understand her own message of democracy, internationalism and peace, she will carry this understanding back to the motherland of Europe. The peace movement is in itself but a part of the great world-movement toward democracy, the growing recognition of the value of the individual man, amid all the frippery and sham which have obscured or re- tarded his development. [so Wovlb $mt* tmb tip GImtttj Unrlb {taw anil tty Qmxty To the American, the honored name of Ghent brings up many and varied associations. It is not its wealth in memories of stirring scenes; not its great bell Roland; not its imperial splendors of the past nor its successes, industrial and commer- cial, of to-day. It is its relation to the peace of the world which commands our first interest. A hun- dred years ago, a treaty was signed in this city, the Treaty of Ghent, a document that means much in this history of America, one that foreshadows much in the history of Europe. On the 24th day of December, in 1814, the Treaty of Ghent put an end forever to armed strife among the English-speaking races. And by the same token, this renewal of good-will looks for- ward from the larger Britain to the larger Europe [55] it_. MJoriD peace anO ®jjent Creatp which shall put aside its misunderstandings and its suspicions in the interest of the people's welfare and the world's peace. The needless war of 1812, between Great Brit- ain and the United States, was not a war of greed nor a war of conquest. Had it been either it would have been unutterably futile, for both sides lost much and neither gained anything. It was a war for honor — just as futile, for no nation's honor can be saved by the wholesale slaughter of men, least of all, of men in no way responsible for the assumed affront. It is true that the mother nation had taken certain liberties with the rights of her newly enfranchised progeny, and that for this infringement the people of America asked an expiation in blood. But the field of battle carries no balm for a nation's honor. The sole content of the Treaty of Ghent was "Cease firing." On both sides men were weary of the pointless strug- gle and at its end each nation stood where it was before. Even the question of honor was left unsatisfied, forgotten in the stress of land-fight and sea-fight. This question remained in abey- [56] morlD Peace anD ^Jjent Create ance for nearly a century later, to be settled quietly and rationally at last by a tribunal at The Hague. And the hue and cry having ceased, only the few concerned on either side knew anything of the set- tlement. This final adjustment without strife, without emotion, should serve as a type, whenever questions of honor occur between men and na- tions. In the fine words of Admiral Winslow, "There is no difference between nations so trivial that they will not fight over it if they want to fight. There is no difference so fundamental that it cannot be settled in peace and mutual respect if both sides are willing to be just and patient." On its face, the Treaty of Ghent settled noth- ing, but in this very fact lies its importance. It decided nothing because it registered merely the results of war. The war decided nothing. The treaty marked the resolution of two nations to stop fighting, because by war nothing could be de- cided. Between the lines one may read the verdict. It implies that war is not glory, but calamity, that its continuance brings nothing but evil. Thus the Treaty of Ghent was in fact the germ [57] Woilt} peace and ©ijent Creatp of the modern movement against war and war's accessories. Very soon after this treaty two pa- triots, whose names should be honored whenever men meet to cement international friendships, met and passed to the next state of agreement. Sir Charles Bagot, Governor of Canada, and Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, prepared the Rush-Bagot Convention. This provided that there should be no warships on the Great Lakes which join the United States and Canada. And ever since that time, for nearly a hundred years, this long boundary, now nearly 4,000 miles long, has been a boundary of peace without a warship or a fortress, a soldier or a gun. Its line traverses territory of every sort, mountain, valley, forest, river and lake. It has been dis- puted nearly all the way "with all the brutal frankness common to blood relations." But there has been no battle, no war scare, no suspicion. Where there are no soldiers there is no war. When nobody is loaded, nothing explodes. It is plain enough that with the border bristling with fortresses, collisions would have been inevitable. [58] morio Peace anO