Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/31

 Now we must go back again and trace for a moment a third current, running into that cesspool which overflowed in 1914.

The era of kingship, as a focus for human loyalty, had passed into the era of Powers. And these Powers grew as predatory as the Roman Empire, though less frankly and obviously so. The age of machinery, of intensive manufacture, had arrived. Europe produced only a part of the raw materials which she needed for her furnaces, her forges or her looms. That country would prosper best, it was felt, which held the tightest grip on the sources of raw material. Every European nation was turning out more manufactured goods than it could use at home; all needed foreign trade; and “trade follows the flag.” Finally, as national wealth was multiplied through the fruitful processes of machinery, Europe began to pile up surplus capital. Investment in new, undeveloped lands was much more profitable to capital than domestic investment under tight conditions.

Out beyond the fringes of European civilization lay barbaric and semi-civilized peoples owning raw materials, ready to buy European manufactured goods, promising still other benefits to the nation which could possess them either as conquerors or “protectors.” It was easy for a European statesman, who wanted a fruitful barbarian country, to find the pretext. A native king, we will say, was encouraged to get hopelessly into debt with a