pletely self-sufficing. We were becoming a
manufacturing nation, requiring markets for the disposal of surplus
products. We were, it appeared, being drawn into a great international
competition, in which markets in China, South America and backward
countries were the prizes. Simultaneously our foreign commerce had
changed. Our growing population had made increasing demands upon our
food products, leaving less to be exported, and at the same time our
exports of manufactures had increased. In 1880 we exported
manufactures (ready for consumption) to the value of ninety-three
millions of dollars; in 1898 to the value of two hundred and
twenty-three millions.

Other industrial factors tended also to bring about a change in our
national ideals. We were beginning to believe in the economic
efficiency of trust organisation, and our industry, conducted on a
larger scale, was being increasingly concentrated. A new class was in
financial control of our great industries. The trust magnate, the new
conductor of vast industrial enterprises, was looking forward toward a
strong unified banking control over industries and a definite expansion
of American trade in foreign countries. American capitalists were
beginning to believe that their economic needs were the same as those
of the European capitalists, who were enticing their nations into
imperialism.

Psychologically, also, we were ripe for any imperialistic venture, for
we enormously exaggerated the progress we had made towards
industrialisation, and were thinking in terms of Europe. We suddenly
believed that we too were over-filled with capital and compelled to
find an outlet for investments and trade. Innumerable editorials
appeared, presenting the arguments for imperialism that had been {48}
urged ad nauseam in Europe. We could not resist, it was argued, the
ubiquitous economic tendency toward expansion. In all countries,
including America, capital was to become congested. An over-saving of
capital, invested in manufacturing plants, produced far in excess of
the possible consumption of the people. We had reached a stage of
chronic over-production, in which increased saving and increased
investment of capital would permanently outstrip consumption.
Everywhere wealth was being heaped up; the savings-banks overflowed;
the rate of interest fell and capital sought desperately for new
investments. The capitalist system must either expand or burst.

Certain superfici