sm and
the wage-earner in due time will be able to get his share.

If such an appeal can be made to the socialist, it can be made with
even greater success to the middle classes, who have no
anti-nationalistic prejudice and whose attitude is easily influenced by
that of the great capitalists. The influence of the imperialistic
propaganda was shown in a searching analysis of German public opinion
made in 1912 or 1913 by a Frenchman and reproduced in the French Yellow
Book. The colonial expansion of France was regarded with intense
irritation. "Germans" it was held, "still require outlets for their
commerce, and they still desire economic and colonial expansion. This
they consider as their right as they are growing every day, and the
future belongs to them." The treaty of 1911 with France (concerning
Morocco) is considered to be a defeat for Germany, and France is
represented as bellicose. On these two points, all groups are
unanimous, "deputies of all parties in the Reichstag, from
Conservatives to Socialists, University men of Berlin, Halle, Jena and
Marburg, students, teachers, employes, bank clerks, bankers, artisans,
traders, manufacturers, doctors, lawyers, the editors of democratic and
socialist newspapers, Jewish publicists, {147} members of the trade
unions, pastors and shop-keepers of Brandenburg, _Junkers_ from
Pomerania and shoe-makers of Stettin, the owners of castles, government
officials, cures and the large farmers of Westphalia."[7] "The
resentment felt in every part of the country is the same. All Germans,
even the Socialists, resent our having taken their share in Morocco."
The German diplomatic defeat is a "national humiliation."[8]

The words "national humiliation" used by this French observer
illuminates both the force and limits of the economic motive in
throwing nations into imperialism. The desire for greater profits and
higher wages present themselves not nakedly, but garbed with idealistic
motives. "A decent respect for the opinion of mankind," as well as a
desire to gain one's own self-respect, compels men to represent their
more crassly egoistic desires as part of an ethical plan. It is not
hypocrisy, but a transformation of material into ideal values.

Thus nationalism enters into the problem, and the appeal to the
supposed interests of the masses becomes an appeal to their
"patriotism." The nation is outraged, humiliated, despised. Its
honour, which is in reality its prestige