The American Empire Part 19

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 a.s.sert 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 j.a.pan 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 ma.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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 subst.i.tuted for liberty and fraternity. The ruling cla.s.s 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 uber 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 cla.s.s 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 ca.n.a.l, 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 sn.o.bbery 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.

One more step must be taken, and the process of imperializing public opinion is complete. The people are told that the imperialism to which they have been called is the work of "manifest destiny."

7. _Manifest Destiny_

The argument of "manifest destiny" is employed by the strong as a blanket justification for acts of aggression against the weak. Each time that the United States has come face to face with the necessity of adding to its territory at the expense of some weak neighbor, the advocates of expansion have plied this argument with vigor and with uniform success.

The American nation began its work of territorial expansion with the purchase of Louisiana. Jefferson, who had been elected on a platform of strict construction of the Const.i.tution, hesitated at an act which he regarded as "beyond the Const.i.tution." (Jefferson's "Works," Vol. IV, p.

198.) Quite different was the language of his more imperialistic contemporaries. Gouverneur Morris said, "France will not sell this territory. If we want it, we must adopt the Spartan policy and obtain it by steel, not by gold."[51] During February, 1803, the United States Senate debated the closing of the Mississippi to American commerce. "To the free navigation of the Mississippi we had an undoubted right from nature and from the position of the Western country,"[52] said Senator Ross (Pennsylvania) on February 14. On February 23rd Senator White (Delaware) went a step farther: "You had as well pretend to dam up the mouth of the Mississippi, and say to the restless waves, 'Ye shall cease here, and never mingle with the ocean,' as to expect they (the settlers) will be prevented from descending it."[53] On the same day (February 23rd) Senator Jackson (Georgia) said: "G.o.d and nature have destined New Orleans and the Floridas to belong to this great and rising Empire."[54]

G.o.d, nature and the requirements of American commerce were the arguments used to justify the purchase, or if necessary, the seizure of New Orleans. The precedent has been followed and the same arguments presented all through the century that followed the momentous decision to extend the territory of the United States.

Some reference has been made to the Mexican War and the argument that the Southwest was a "natural" part of the territory of the United States. The same argument was made in regard to Cuba and by the same spokesmen of the slave-power. Stephen A. Douglas (New Orleans, December 13, 1858) was asked:

"How about Cuba?"

"It is our destiny to have Cuba," he answered, "and you can't prevent it if you try."[55]

On another occasion (New York, December, 1858) Douglas stated the matter even more broadly:

"This is a young, vigorous and growing nation and must obey the law of increase, must multiply and as fast as we multiply we must expand. You can't resist the law if you try. He is foolish who puts himself in the way of American destiny."[56]

President McKinley stated that the Philippines, like Cuba and Porto Rico, "were intrusted to our hands by the Providence of G.o.d" (Boston, February 16, 1899), and one of his fellow imperialists--Senator Beveridge of Indiana--carried the argument one step farther (January 9, 1900) when he said in the Senate (_Congressional Record_, January 9, 1900, p. 704): "The Philippines are ours forever.... And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not repudiate our duty to the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under G.o.d, of the civilization of the world."

Manifest destiny is now urged to justify further acts of aggression by the United States against her weaker neighbors. _The Chicago Tribune_, discussing the Panama Ca.n.a.l and its implications, says editorially (May 5, 1916): "The Panama Ca.n.a.l has gone a long way towards making our sh.o.r.e continuous and the intervals must and will be filled up; not necessarily by conquest or even formal annexation, but by a decisive control in one form or another."

Here the argument of manifest destiny is backed by the argument of "military necessity,"--the argument that led Great Britain to possess herself of Gibraltar, Suez and a score of other strategic points all round the earth, and to maintain, at a ruinous cost, a huge navy; the argument that led Napoleon across Europe in his march of b.l.o.o.d.y, fatal triumph; the argument that led Germany through Belgium in 1914--one of the weakest and yet one of the most seductive and compelling arguments that falls from the tongue of man. Because we have a western and an eastern front, we must have the Panama Ca.n.a.l. Because we have the Panama Ca.n.a.l, we must dominate Central America. The next step is equally plain; because we dominate Central America and the Panama Ca.n.a.l, there must be a land route straight through to the Ca.n.a.l. In the present state of Mexican unrest, that is impossible, and therefore we must dominate Mexico.

The argument was stated with persuasive power by ex-Senator Albert J.

Beveridge (_Collier's Weekly_, May 19, 1917). "Thus in halting fashion but nevertheless surely, the chain of power and influence is being forged about the Gulf. To neglect Mexico is to throw away not only one link but a large part of that chain without which the value and usefulness of the remainder are greatly diminished if indeed not rendered negligible." By a similar train of logic, the entire American continent, from Cape Horn to Bering Sea can and will be brought under the dominion of the United States.

Some destiny must call, some imperative necessity must beckon, some divine authority must be invoked. The campaign for "100 percent Americanism," carefully thought out, generously financed and carried to every nook and corner of the United States aims to prove this necessity.

The war waged by the Department of Justice and by other public officers against the "Reds" is intended to arouse in the American people a sense of the present danger of impending calamity. The divine sanction was expressed by President Wilson in his address to the Senate on July 10, 1919. The President discussed the Peace Treaty in some of its aspects and then said, "It is thus that a new responsibility has come to this great nation that we honor and that we would all wish to lift to yet higher service and achievement. The stage is set, the destiny disclosed.

It has come about by no plan of our conceiving but by the hand of G.o.d who has led us into this war. We cannot turn back. We can only go forward, with lifted and freshened spirit to follow the vision."

8. _The Open Road_

The American people took a long step forward on November 2, 1920. The era of modern imperialism, begun in 1896 by the election of McKinley, found its expression in the annexation of Hawaii; the conquest of Cuba and the Philippines; the seizure of Panama, and a rapid commercial and financial expansion into Latin America. In 1912 the Republicans were divided. The more conservative elements backed Taft for reelection. The more aggressive group (notably United States Steel) supported Roosevelt. Between them they divided the Republican strength, and while they polled a total vote of 7,604,463 as compared with Wilson's 6,293,910, the Republican split enabled Wilson to secure a plurality of 2,173,512, although he had less than half of the total vote.

President Wilson entered office with the ideals of "The New Freedom." He was out to back the "man on the make," the small tradesman and manufacturer; the small farmer; the worker, ambitious to rise into the ranks of business or professional life. With the support, primarily, of little business, Wilson managed to hold his own for four years, and at the 1916 election to poll a plurality, over the Republican Party, of more than half a million votes. He won, however, primarily because "he kept us out of war." April, 1917, deprived him of that argument. His "New Freedom" doctrines, translated into international politics (in the Fourteen Points) were roughly handled in Paris. The country rejected his leadership in the decisive Congressional elections of 1918, and he and his party went out of power in the avalanche of 1920, when Harding received a plurality nearly three times as great as the highest one ever before given a presidential candidate (Roosevelt, in 1904). Every state north of the Mason and Dixon Line went Republican. Tennessee left the Solid South and joined the same party. The Democrats carried only eleven states--the traditional Democratic stronghold.

The victory of Harding is a victory for organized, imperial, American business. The "man on the make" is brushed aside. In his place stands banker, manufacturer and trader, ready to carry American money and American products into Latin America and Asia.

Before the United States lies the open road of imperialism. Manifest destiny points the way in gestures that cannot be mistaken. Capitalist society in the United States has evolved to a place where it must make certain pressing demands upon neighboring communities. Surplus is to be invested; investments are to be protected, American authority is to be respected. All of these necessities imply the exercise of imperial power by the government of the United States.

Capitalism makes these demands upon the rulers of capitalist society.

There is no gainsaying them. A refusal to comply with them means death.

Therefore the American nation, under the urge of economic necessity; guided half-intelligently, half-instinctively by the plutocracy, is moving along the imperial highroad, and woe to the man that steps across the path that leads to their fulfillment. He who seeks to thwart imperial destiny will be branded as traitor to his country and as blasphemer against G.o.d.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] "New American History," A. B. Hart. American Book Co., 1917, p.

348.

[49] The total area of these countries, exclusive of their colonies, is 807,123 square miles.

[50] See "Theory of the Leisure Cla.s.s," Thorstein Veblen. New York, Huebsch, 1918, Ch. 10.

[51] "A History of Missouri," Louis Houck. Chicago, R. R. Donnelly & Sons, 1908, vol. II, p. 346.

[52] "History of Louisiana," Charles Gayarre. New Orleans, Hansell & Bros., Ltd., 1903, vol. III, p. 478.

[53] Ibid., p. 485.