e general desire for colonies in
Africa, in which one Continental power pretty effectually blocked
another, and the latent distrust inside the Triple Alliance. England,
meanwhile, preserved a wise and profitable neutrality.

"These tremendous sacrifices for armaments, both on land and water, had
far-reaching results, and, as we see it now, were clouds with silver
linings. The demand for hardened steel projectiles, nickel-steel
plates, and light and almost unbreakable machinery, was a great
incentive to improvement in metallurgy while the necessity for compact
and safely carried ammunition greatly stimulated chemical research, and
led to the discovery of explosives whose powers no obstacle can resist,
and incidentally to other more useful things.

"Further mechanical and scientific progress, however, such as flying
machines provided with these high explosives, and asphyxiating bombs
containing compressed gas that could be fired from guns or dropped from
the air, intervened. The former would have laid every city in the
dust, and the latter might have almost exterminated the race. These
discoveries providentially prevented hostilities, so that the 'Great
War,' so long expected, never came, and the rival nations had their
pains for nothing, or, rather, for others than themselves.

"Let us now examine the political and ethnological results. Hundreds
of thousands, of the flower of Continental Europe were killed by
overwork and short rations, and millions of desirable and
often--unfortunately for us--undesirable people were driven to
emigration, nearly all of whom came to English-speaking territory,
greatly increasing our productiveness and power. As, we have seen, the
jealousy of the Continental powers for one another effectually
prevented their extending their influence or protectorates to other
continents, which jealousy was considerably aided by the small but
destructive wars that did take place. High taxes also made it more
difficult for the moneyed men to invest in colonizing or development
companies, which are so often the forerunners of absorption; while the
United States, with her coal--of which the Mediterranean states have
scarcely any--other resources, and low taxes, which, though necessary,
can be nothing but an evil, has been able to expand naturally as no
other nation ever has before.

"This has given the English-speakers, especially the United States, a
free hand, rendering enforcement of the Monroe