c and social development in the future. What
our attitude towards internationalism, nationalism, imperialism and war
is to be ten, thirty or fifty years from now will depend upon our
internal development. We cannot decide for a policy of
internationalism if we grow to be an over-populated country of
impoverished men, with great capitalists pushing us out towards foreign
adventures, economic and military. An imperialistic war-like spirit
will arise if the internal pressure upon the population becomes
excessive.

In measuring this pressure, we are dealing with relatives, not
absolutes. During many centuries the Chinese coolies have become so
accommodated to a meagre life that they do not seek to conquer other
nations but choose rather to starve quietly within their walls. There
is a higher standard of living in Germany to-day than in the more
pacific Germany of seventy years ago, but desires have increased more
rapidly than wages. As a result the nation is forced outwards.

{163}

Though in many respects conditions of life in America are improving,
discontent and frustrated ambition increase. As our numbers grow,
farms become relatively scarce, and a class of tenant farmers and an
agricultural proletariat develop. The chances of success for both
these classes are slighter than a generation ago. Manufacturing is
conducted on an ever larger scale and the opportunity to rise is
becoming less. The openings in retail trade, though many, are small,
and there are vast numbers of failures. Wages are less in relation to
the standards of living surrounding the workman, and fear of
unemployment is chronic. The country is full of poor men with no firm
purchase on life. Income, it is true, is more evenly distributed than
property, but even here a crass inequality reigns. Upon the
wage-earners falls the heavy incidence of industrial injuries, disease,
and unemployment.

It is of such conditions that imperialism and wars are made. To
develop millions of landless men without wealth and with precarious
jobs is to create a material superlatively inflammable. You can appeal
to such men for a "strong" policy that will conquer foreign markets and
therefore "jobs." There is a group much lower in economic status--the
men submerged below the poverty line. These men, with no money in
their pockets and no steady employment, but with voices, votes and
newspaper organs, are susceptible to jingoism. They have a high narrow
se