Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/52

 knowledged by annual tribute and be enforced by an adequate Navy, or, in the end, be redeemed by vital concessions. These will be the humble recognition of our temporary Imperial Economic Highness until the ugly thing some of our more ambitious citizens think that we must build has gone the way of all Empires which are held together for a few pages of history by politico-economic coercion. This may be our destiny, but it is a pity to face it with bandaged eyes.

As already suggested, this curiously contradictory tendency in democracy is inevitable as long as we continue to measure value as we do, and put a tax on effort. We submit to the domination of these archaisms; and invite the struggle for adjustment which naturally plays havoc with all our national calculations. Imperialism is not a French trait, a British trait or an American trait. It is embodied in the imperial habit of thwarting domestic demand, and seeking a more ignorant alien demand.

It is not a pretty picture and many of us will not admit it is a true one—that is our danger. We have our gold barons, our gold earls and our gold dukes, all with their international patents of nobility, possibly even our discreet emperor who moves among us in disguise, taking his subtle pleasure in hobnobbing with two or three guileless but hopeful pretenders; but thanks be to our fathers who handed them over to us, we have them all on a leash—if only we can pick up the loose end.

Our inquiry into the cause of our ailment shows that at various points there is lost the proper relation between power and responsibility—the two vital complements of the life-blood