Page:Mead - The Overthrow of the War System.pdf/111

Rh What are right relations for the races of men?

World contact has developed a knowledge and an interest between people of every nation. It has also brought mankind face to face with the problem of what are right relations for the varied races that were differentiated during their long isolation. For the period of isolation, when "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," has passed away forever.

Do historical facts throw light on the question as to America's duty toward other races! History furnishes convincing evidence of the wrong way to solve the racial problem, and but little evidence of ways that are Christian and right. And since a question is never settled until it is settled right, but few of the racial problems of world contact have found solution because old formulas of government do not fit the modern, interdependent world. A few historic examples of the wrong way to handle race problems prove the need of new formulas better fitted to the realities of the modern world.

The ideal of empire

The historic ideal that has guided most of the relations between different races has been that