Page:Scott Nearing - The American Empire (1921).djvu/30

 Rh The thoughtful student of the situation in the United States is not deceived by personalities and names. He realizes that the events of 1917–1918 have behind them generations of causes which lead logically to just such results; that he is witnessing one phase of a great process in the life of the American nation—a process that is old in its principles yet ever new in its manifestations.

Traditional liberties have always given way before imperial necessity. An examination of the situation in which the ruling class of the United States found itself in 1917, and of the forces that were operating to determine public policy, must convince even the enthusiast that the occurrences of 1917 and the succeeding years were the logical outcome of imperial necessity. To what extent that explanation will account for the discrepancy between the promise of 1776 and the twentieth century fulfillment of that promise must appear from a further examination of the evidence.