Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/115

 could ignore what seemed to be the chief modern cause of war. For though other more reputable causes — security, pride, prestige — figured in the foreground and inflamed war-passions, the real conflict of vital interests between nations lay in the economic field. This is frequently denied by those who cite the Great War as a non-economic event. But while it is true that the possessive passion has other appeals, it is idle to contend that Alsace-Lorraine, with her natural resources, the Drang nach Osten, the scramble for North Africa, Persia, China, Constantinople, and the access to the Mediterranean, were not economic in their main significance. Such are the really “vital” interests which divide nations, easy and growing access to foods and raw materials, increasing and reliable markets for surplus home products, areas for migration of growing population under their own flag, or free access to foreign areas of profitable development. These economic considerations seemed to me of paramount importance in any project aiming. at an international order. Fair play for the several advanced nations with their expanding trade and population, security for the interests of the backward peoples in areas thus opened to development and migration, and more broadly the utilization of the world’s economic resources for the equal benefit of all mankind — such was the practical ideal which a League of Nations or other international system should envisage and seek to attain.