Volume I Part 22 (1/2)
[Footnote 46: The reference is to President Roosevelt's speech at the Guildhall in June, 1910.]
[Footnote 47: This refers to the declination of the British Government to be represented at the San Francisco world exhibition, held in 1915.]
[Footnote 48: John Ba.s.sett Moore, at that time the very able counsellor of the State Department.]
[Footnote 49: Mr. Root's masterly speech on Panama tolls was made in the United States Senate, January 21, 1913.]
[Footnote 50: Ante: page 202.]
[Footnote 51: This is the fact that is too frequently lost sight of in current discussions of the melting pot. In the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August, 1920, Mr. William S. Rossiter, for many years chief clerk of the United States Census and a statistician of high standing, shows that, of the 95,000,000 white people of the United States, 55,000,000 trace their origin to England, Scotland, and Wales.]
[Footnote 52: The Amba.s.sador's letter is dated March 18th.]
[Footnote 53: Mr. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was one of the most blatant opponents of Panama repeal.]
CHAPTER IX
AMERICA TRIES TO PREVENT THE EUROPEAN WAR
Page's mind, from the day of his arrival in England, had been filled with that portent which was the most outstanding fact in European life.
Could nothing be done to prevent the dangers threatened by European militarism? Was there no way of forestalling the war which seemed every day to be approaching nearer? The dates of the following letters, August, 1913, show that this was one of the first ideas which Page presented to the new Administration.
_To Edward M. House_ Aug. 28, 1913.
MY DEAR HOUSE:
. . . Everything is lovely and the goose hangs high. We're having a fine time. Only, only, only--I do wish to do something constructive and lasting. Here are great navies and armies and great withdrawals of men from industry--an enormous waste. Here are kings and courts and gold lace and ceremonies which, without producing anything, require great cost to keep them going. Here are all the privileges and taxes that this state of things implies--every one a hindrance to human progress. We are free from most of these. We have more people and more capable people and many times more territory than both England and Germany; and we have more potential wealth than all Europe. They know that. They'd like to find a way to escape.
The Hague programmes, for the most part, just lead them around a circle in the dark back to the place where they started. Somebody needs to _do_ something. If we could find some friendly use for these navies and armies and kings and things--in the service of humanity--they'd follow us. We ought to find a way to use them in cleaning up the tropics under our leaders.h.i.+p and under our code of ethics--that everything must be done for the good of the tropical peoples and that n.o.body may annex a foot of land. They want a job.
Then they'd quit sitting on their haunches, growling at one another.
I wonder if we couldn't serve notice that the land-stealing game is forever ended and that the cleaning up of backward lands is now in order--for the people that live there; and then invite Europe's help to make the tropics as healthful as the Panama Zone?
There's no future in Europe's vision--no long look ahead. They give all their thought to the immediate danger. Consider this Balkan War; all European energy was spent merely to keep the Great Powers at peace. The two wars in the Balkans have simply impoverished the people--left the world that much worse than it was before. n.o.body has considered the well-being or the future of those peoples nor of their land. The Great Powers are mere threats to one another, content to check, one the other! There can come no help to the progress of the world from this sort of action--no step forward.
Work on a world-plan. Nothing but blue chips, you know. Is it not possible that Mexico may give an entering wedge for this kind of thing?
Heartily yours, WALTER H. PAGE.
In a memorandum, written about the same time, Mr. Page explains his idea in more detail:
Was there ever greater need than there is now of a first-cla.s.s mind unselfishly working on world problems? The ablest ruling minds are engaged on domestic tasks. There is no world-girdling intelligence at work in government. On the continent of Europe, the Kaiser is probably the foremost man. Yet he cannot think far beyond the provincial views of the Germans. In England, Sir Edward Grey is the largest-visioned statesman. All the Europeans are spending their thought and money in watching and checkmating one another and in maintaining their armed and balanced _status quo_.
A way must be found out of this stagnant watching. Else a way will have to be fought out of it; and a great European war would set the Old World, perhaps the whole world, back a long way; and thereafter, the present armed watching would recur; we should have gained nothing. It seems impossible to talk the Great Powers out of their fear of one another or to ”Hague” them out of it. They'll never be persuaded to disarm. The only way left seems to be to find some common and useful work for these great armies to do. Then, perhaps, they'll work themselves out of their jealous position.
Isn't this sound psychology?
To produce a new situation, the vast energy that now spends itself in maintaining armies and navies must find a new outlet. Something new must be found for them to do, some great unselfish task that they can do together.