Brutus.

The love of justice; the yearning for liberty; the sense of fair play;
the desire to extend opportunity, all operate powerfully upon those to
whom the principles of self-government are dearest, leading them to
sacrifice position, economic advantage, and sometimes life itself for
the sake of the principles to which they have pledged their faith.

Therein lies what is perhaps one of the most essential differences
between popular government and empire. The former rests upon certain
ideas of popular rights and liberties. The latter is a weapon of
exploitation in the hands of the ruling class. Popular government lies
in the hopes and beliefs of the people. Empire is the servant of
ambition and the shadow of greed. Popular government has been evolved by
the human race at an immense sacrifice during centuries of struggle
against the forms and ideas that underly imperialism. Since men have set
their backs on the past and turned their faces with resolute hope to the
future, empire has repelled them, while democracy has called and
beckoned.

Empires have been made possible by "bread and circuses"; by appealing to
an abnormally developed sense of patriotism; by the rule of might where
largess and cajolery have failed. Rome, Germany and Britain are
excellent examples of these three methods. In each case, millions of
citizens have had faith in the empire, believing in its promise of glory
and of victory; but on the other hand, this belief could be maintained
only by a continuous propaganda--triumphs in Rome, school-books and
"boilerplate" in Germany and England. Even then, the imperial class is
none too secure in its privileges. Always from the abysses of popular
discontent, there arises some Spartacus, some Liebknecht, some Smillie,
crying that "the future belongs to the people."

The imperial class, its privileges unceasingly threatened by the popular
love of freedom--devotes not a little attention to the problem of
"preserving law and order" by suppressing those who speak in the name of
liberty, and by carrying on a generous advertising campaign, the object
of which is to persuade the people of the advantages which they derive
from imperial rule.

During the earlier stages in the development of empire, the imperial
class is able to keep itself and its designs in the background. As time
passes, however, the power of the imperialist becomes more and more
evident, until some great crisis forces the empire builders to s