The Great Illusion Part 22

[13] Hartley Withers, "The Meaning of Money." Smith, Elder and Co., London.

[14] See pp. 75-76.

[15] See note concerning French colonial policy, pp. 122-124.

[16] Summarizing an article in the _Oriental Economic Review_, the San Francisco _Bulletin_ says: "j.a.pan at this moment seems to be finding out that 'conquered' Korea in every real sense belongs to the Koreans, and that all that j.a.pan is getting out of her war is an additional burden of statesmanship and an additional expense of administration, and an increased percentage of international complication due to the extension of the j.a.panese frontier dangerously close to her Continental rivals, China and Russia. j.a.pan as 'owner' of Korea is in a worse position economically and politically than she was when she was compelled to treat with Korea as an independent nation." The _Oriental Economic Review_ notes that "the j.a.panese hope to ameliorate the Korean situation through the general intermarriage of the two peoples; but this means a racial advance, and through it closer social and economic relations than were possible before annexation, and would probably have been easier of accomplishment had not the destruction of Korean independence embittered the people."

[17] Spanish Four per Cents. were 42-1/2 during the war, and just prior to the Moroccan trouble, in 1911, had a free market at 90 per cent.

F.C. Penfold writes in the December (1910) _North American Review_ as follows: "The new Spain, whose motive force springs not from the windmills of dreamy fiction, but from honest toil, is materially better off this year than it has been for generations. Since the war Spanish bonds have practically doubled in value, and exchange with foreign money markets has improved in corresponding ratio. Spanish seaports on the Atlantic and Mediterranean teem with shipping. Indeed, the nature of the people seems changing from a _dolce far niente_ indolence to enterprising thrift."

[18] London _Daily Mail_, December 15, 1910.

[19] "Traite de Science des Finances," vol. ii., p. 682.

[20] "Die Wirtschafts Finanz und Sozialreform im Deutschen Reich."

Leipzig, 1882.

[21] "La Crise economique," _Revue des Deux Mondes_, March 15, 1879.

[22] Maurice Block, "La Crise economique," _Revue des Deux Mondes_, March 15, 1879. See also "Les Consequences economiques de la Prochaine Guerre," Captaine Bernard Serrigny. Paris, 1909. The author says (p.

127): "It was evidently the disastrous financial position of Germany, which had compelled Prussia at the outbreak of the war to borrow money at the unheard-of price of 11 per cent., that caused Bismarck to make the indemnity so large a one. He hoped thus to repair his country's financial situation. Events cruelly deceived him, however. A few months after the last payment of the indemnity the gold despatched by France had already returned to her territory, while Germany, poorer than ever, was at grips with a crisis which was to a large extent the direct result of her temporary wealth."

[23] "Das Deutsche Reich zur Zeit Bismarcks."

[24] The figures of German emigration are most suggestive in this connection. Although they show great fluctuation, indicating their reaction to many factors, they always appear to rise after the wars.

Thus, after the wars of the Duchies they doubled, for the five years preceding the campaigns of 1865 they averaged 41,000, and after those campaigns rose suddenly to over 100,000. They had fallen to 70,000 in 1869, and then rose to 154,000 in 1872, and what is more remarkable still, the emigration did not come from the conquered provinces, from Schleswig-Holstein, Alsace or Lorraine, but from Prussia! While not for a moment claiming that the effect of the wars is the sole factor in this fluctuation, the fact of emigration as bearing on the general claim made for successful war demands the most careful examination. See particularly, "L'emigration Allemande," _Revue des Deux Mondes_, January, 1874.

[25] The Montreal _Presse_, March 27, 1909.

[26] Speech, House of Commons, August 26, 1909. The New York papers of November 16, 1909, report the following from Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the Dominion Parliament during the debate on the Canadian Navy: "If now we have to organize a naval force, it is because we are growing as a nation--it is the penalty of being a nation. I know of no nation having a sea-coast of its own which has no navy, except Norway, but Norway will never tempt the invader. Canada has its coal-mines, its gold-mines, its wheat-fields, and its vast wealth may offer a temptation to the invader."

[27] The recent tariff negotiations between Canada and the United States were carried on directly between Ottawa and Washington, without the intervention of London. Canada regularly conducts her tariff negotiations, even with other members of the British Empire. South Africa takes a like att.i.tude. The _Volkstein_ of July 10, 1911, says: "The Union const.i.tution is in full accord with the principle that neutrality is permissible in the case of a war in which England and other independent States of the Empire are involved.... England, as well as South Africa, would best be served by South Africa's neutrality"

(quoted in _Times_, July 11, 1911). Note the phrase "independent States of the Empire."

[28] _Times_, November 7, 1911.

[29] The London _World_, an Imperialist organ, puts it thus: "The electoral process of reversing the results of the war is completed in South Africa. By the result of last week's contests Mr. Merriman has secured a strong working majority in both Houses. The triumph of the Bond at Cape Town is no less sweeping than was that of Het Volk at Pretoria. The three territories upon which the future of the subcontinent depends are linked together under Boer supremacy ... the future federated or uniformed system will be raised upon a Dutch basis.

If this was what we wanted, we might have bought it cheaper than with two hundred and fifty millions of money and twenty thousand lives."

[30] A Bill has been introduced into the Indian Legislative Council enabling the Government to prohibit emigration to any country where the treatment accorded to British Indian subjects was not such as met with the approval of the Governor-General. "As just treatment for free Indians has not been secured," says the London _Times_, "prohibition will undoubtedly be applied against Natal unless the position of free Indians there is ameliorated."

[31] Britain's total overseas trade for 1908 was $5,245,000,000, of which $3,920,000,000 was with foreigners, and $1,325,000,000 with her own possessions. And while it is true that with some of her Colonies Britain has as much as 52 per cent. of their trade--_e.g._, Australia--it also happens that some absolutely foreign countries do a greater percentage even of their trade with Britain than do her Colonies. Britain possesses 38 per cent. of Argentina's foreign trade, but only 36 per cent. of Canada's, although Canada has recently given her a considerable preference.

[32] West Africa and Madagascar.

[33] It is a little encouraging, perhaps, for those of us who are doing what we may towards the dissemination of saner ideas, that an early edition of this book seems to have played some part in bringing about the change in French colonial policy here indicated. The French Colonial Ministry, for the purpose of emphasizing the point of view mentioned in _Le Temps_ article, on two or three occasions called pointed attention to the first French edition of this book. In the official report of the Colonial Budget for 1911, a large part of this chapter is reprinted. In the Senate (see _Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise_, July 2, 1911) the Rapporteur again quoted from this book at length, and devoted a great part of his speech towards emphasizing the thesis here set out.

[34] A financier to whom I showed the proofs of this chapter notes here: "If such a tax were imposed the output would be _nil_."

[35] A correspondent sent me some interesting and significant details of the rapid strides made by Germany in Egypt. It had already been stated that a German newspaper would appear in October, 1910, and that the official notices of the mixed courts have been transferred from the local French newspapers to the German _Egyptischer Nachrichten_. During the years 1897-1907, German residents in Egypt increased by 44 per cent., while British residents increased by only 5 per cent. Germany's share of the Egyptian imports during the period 1900-1904 was $3,443,880, but by 1909 this figure reached $5,786,355. The latest German undertaking in Egypt was the foundation of the Egyptische Hypotheken Bank, in which all the princ.i.p.al joint-stock banks of Germany were interested. Its capital was to be $2,500,000 and the six directors included three Germans, one Austrian, and two Italians.

Writing of "Home Sickness among the Emigrants" (the _London World_, July 19, 1910), Mr. F.G. Aflalo said:

"The Germans are, of all nations, the least troubled with this weakness.

Though far more warmly attached to the hearth than their neighbors across the Rhine, they feel exile less. Their one idea is to evade conscription, and this offers to all continental nations a compensation for exile, which to the Englishman means nothing. I remember a colony of German fishermen on Lake Tahoe, the loveliest water in California, where the pines of the Sierra Nevada must have vividly recalled their native Harz. Yet they rejoiced in the freedom of their adopted country, and never knew a moment's regret for the Fatherland."

[36] According to a recent estimate, the Germans in Brazil now number some four hundred thousand, the great majority being settled in the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul, Parana, and Santa Catharina, while a small number are found in Sao Paulo and Espirito Santo in the north.

This population is, for the most part, the result of natural increase, for of late years emigration thither has greatly declined.

In Near Asia, too, German colonization is by no means of recent origin.

There are in Transcaucasia agricultural settlements established by Wurtemberg farmers, whose descendants in the third generation live in their own villages and still speak their native language. In Palestine, there are the German Templar Colonies on the coast, which have prospered so well as to excite the resentment of the natives.

[37] London _Morning Post_, February 1, 1912.

[38] _North American Review_, March, 1912. See also citation, p. 15.

[39] April, 1912.

[40] "Germany and the Next War," by Gen. Friedrich von Bernhardi.

London: Edwin Arnold, 1912.

[41] See, notably, the article from Admiral Mahan, "The Place of Power in International Relations," in the _North American Review_ for January, 1912; and such books of Professor Wilkinson's as "The Great Alternative," "Britain at Bay," "War and Policy."

[42] "The Valor of Ignorance." Harpers.

[43] For an expression of these views in a more definite form, see Ratzenhofer's "Die Sociologische Erkenntniss," pp. 233, 234. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1898.

[44] Speech at Stationer's Hall, London, June 6, 1910.

[45] "The Strenuous Life." Century Co.

[46] _McClure's Magazine_, August, 1910.

[47] Thomas Hughes, in his preface to the first English edition of "The Bigelow Papers," refers to the opponents of the Crimean War as a "vain and mischievous clique, who amongst us have raised the cry of peace."

See also Mr. J.A. Hobson's "Psychology of Jingoism," p. 52. London: Grant Richards.

[48] _North American Review_, March, 1912.

[49] "The Interest of America in International Conditions." New York: Harper & Brothers.

[50] It is related by Critchfield, in his work on the South American Republics, that during all the welter of blood and disorder which for a century or more marked the history of those countries, the Roman Catholic priesthood on the whole maintained a high standard of life and character, and continued, against all discouragement, to preach consistently the beauties of peace and order. However much one may be touched by such a spectacle, and pay the tribute of one's admiration to these good men, one cannot but feel that the preaching of these high ideals did not have any very immediate effect on the social progress of South America. What has effected this change? It is that those countries have been brought into the economic current of the world; the bank and factory and railroad have introduced factors and motives of a quite different order from those urged by the priest, and are slowly winning those countries from military adventure to honest work, a thing which the preaching of high ideals failed to do.

[51] "To-day and To-morrow," p. 63. John Murray.

[52] Since the publication of the first edition of this book there has appeared in France an admirable work by M.J. Novikow, "Le Darwinisme Social" (Felix Alcan, Paris), in which this application of the Darwinian theory to sociology is discussed with great ability, and at great length and in full detail, and the biological presentation of the case, as just outlined, has been inspired in no small part by M. Novikow's work. M.

Novikow has established in biological terms what, previous to the publication of his book, I attempted to establish in economic terms.

[53] Co-operation does not exclude compet.i.tion. If a rival beats me in business, it is because he furnishes more efficient co-operation than I do; if a thief steals from me, he is not co-operating at all, and if he steals much will prevent my co-operation. The organism (society) has every interest in encouraging the compet.i.tor and suppressing the parasite.