Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/329

 MORAL AND SOCIAL TASKS OF WORLD POLITICS 315

brutal oppression. Only one condition belongs here that this moral-humane means of colonial policy may be applied : I mean that at home a feudal class shall not rule a class not accustomed to esteem the worth of man in the lower classes. The best passage in Rathgen's lecture was that in which he said that the foreign colonial policy depends upon a strong social policy in our own land. Restriction of the domineering spirit at home is for Rathgen a fundamental presupposition for a morally justifiable policy abroad. Naumann also represented these thoughts with great acuteness : discipline and collective power within the people are the sole foundations upon which an enduring and sound foreign policy can be built. Only we must remark that Rathgen's lecture made the impression that he expected all sal- vation from this method of moral preaching which should change the heart of the rulers. But upon the effectiveness of this means there is little dependence. So long as the fact remains that the great majority of men act from self-interest, so long will the class of men accustomed to rule never voluntarily surrender their time-honored control. Individuals of superior nature are accessible to moral appeals, but most men in economic and political matters have shown themselves indisposed to give up, from ethical idealism, privileges which they have enjoyed. The only security, in our estimation, against a purely brutal colonial policy is the political control at home by a class of men who, from their own life-conditions, are the natural antagonists of brutal oppression. The democratic administration of a state in which the great mass of workingmen and peasants, those who in their own social and industrial life are compelled to strive every day against oppression and domination, determine the state's direction from their sentiments and ideas only such a demo- cratic administration can offer guarantees, and that only in uncertain measure, that force will be used with moderation in colonial affairs. The battle for the emancipation of the lower classes implies also for foreign policy the activity of new prin- ciples which in other times have been wanting.

DR. PHIL. MAX MAURENBRECHER.

BERLIN.