Part 8 (1/2)

VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH AND POWER

1. _Economic Foundations_

The people of the United States, through their contests with the American Indians, the Mexicans and the Filipinos, have established that ”supreme and extensive political domination” which is one of the chief characteristics of empire.

But the American Empire does not rest upon a political basis. Only the most superficial portions of its superstructure are political in character. Imperialism in the United States, as in every other modern country, is built not upon politics, but upon industry.

The struggle between empires has s.h.i.+fted, in recent years, from the political and the military to the economic field. The old imperialism was based on military conquest and political domination. The new ”financial” imperialism is based on economic opportunities and advantages. Under this new regime, territorial domination is subordinated to business profit.

While American public officials were engaged in the routine task of extending the political boundaries of the United States, the foundations of imperial strength were being laid by the masters of industrial life--the traders, manufacturers, bankers, the organizers of trusts and of industrial combinations. These owners and directors of the nation's wealth have been the real builders of the American Empire.

As the United States has developed, the economic motives have come more and more to the surface, until no modern nation--not England herself--has such a record in the search for material possessions. The pursuit of wealth, in the United States, has been carried forward ruthlessly; brutally. ”Anything to win” has been the motto. Man against man, and group against group, they have struggled for gain,--first, in order to ”get ahead;” then to acc.u.mulate the comforts and luxuries, and last of all, to possess the immense power that goes with the control of modern wealth.

The early history of the country presaged anything but this. The colonists were seeking to escape tyranny, to establish justice and to inaugurate liberty. Their promises were prophetic. Their early deeds put the world in their debt. Forward looking people everywhere thrilled at the mention of the name ”America.” Then came the discovery of the fabulous wealth of the new country; the pressure of the growing stream of immigrants; the heaping up of riches; the rapacious search after more! more! the desertion of the dearest principles of America's early promise, and the transcribing of another story of ”economic determinism.”

Until very recent times the American people continued to talk of political affairs as though they were the matters of chief public concern. The recent growth and concentration of economic power have showed plainly, however, that America was destined to play her greatest role on the economic field. Capable men therefore ceased to go into politics and instead turned their energies into the whirl of business, where they received a training that made them capable of handling affairs of the greatest intricacy and magnitude.

2. _Every Man for Himself_

The development of American industry, during the hundred years that began with the War of 1812, led inevitably to the unification of business control in the hands of a small group of wealth owners.

”Every man for himself” was the principle that the theorists of the eighteenth century bequeathed to the industrial pioneers of the nineteenth. The philosophy of individualism fitted well with the temperament and experience of the English speaking peoples; the practice of individualism under the formula ”Every man for himself” seemed a divine ordination for the benefit of the new industry.

The eager American population adopted the slogan with enthusiasm. ”Every man for himself” was the essence of their frontier lives; it was the breath of the wilderness.

But the idea failed in practice. Despite the a.s.surances of its champions that individualism was necessary to preserve initiative and that progress was impossible without it, like many another principle--fine sounding in theory, it broke down in the application.

The first struggle that confronted the ambitious conqueror of the new world was the struggle with nature. Her stores were abundant, but they must be prepared for human use. Timber must be sawed; soil tilled; fish caught; coal mined; iron smelted; gold extracted. Rivers must be bridged; mountains spanned; lines of communication maintained. The continent was a vast storehouse of riches--potential riches. Before they could be made of actual use, however, the hand of man must transform them and transport them.

These necessary industrial processes were impossible under the ”every man for himself” formula. Here was a vast continent, with boundless opportunities for supplying the necessaries and comforts of life--provided men were willing to come together; divide up the work; specialize; and exchange products.

Cooperation--alone--could conquer nature. The basis of this cooperation proved to be the machine. Its means was the system of production and transportation built upon the use of steam, electricity, gas, and labor saving appliances.

When the United States was discovered, the shuttle was thrown by hand; the hammer was wielded by human arm; the mill-stones were turned by wind and water; the boxes and bales were carried by pack-animals or in sailing vessels,--these processes of production and transportation were conducted in practically the same way as in the time of Pharaoh or of Alexander the Great. A series of discoveries and inventions, made in England between 1735 and 1784, subst.i.tuted the machine for the tool; the power of steam for the power of wind, water or human muscle; and set up the factory to produce, and the railroad and the steamboat to transport the factory product.

American industry, up to 1812, was still conducted on the old, individualistic lines. Factories were little known. Men worked singly, or by twos and threes in sheds or workrooms adjoining their homes. The people lived in small villages or on scattered farms. Within the century American industry was transformed. Production s.h.i.+fted to the factory; about the factory grew up the industrial city in which lived the tens or hundreds of thousands of factory workers and their families.

The machine made a new society. The artisan could not compete with the products of the machine. The home workshop disappeared, and in its place rose the factory, with its tens, its hundreds and its thousands of operatives.

Under the modern system of machine production, each person has his particular duty to perform. Each depends, for the success of his service, upon that performed by thousands of others.

All modern industry is organized on the principle of cooperation, division of labor, and specialization. Each has his task, and unless each task is performed the entire system breaks down.

Never were the various branches of the military service more completely dependent upon each other than are the various departments of modern economic life. No man works alone. All are a.s.sociated more or less intimately with the activities of thousands and millions of their fellows, until the failure of one is the failure of all, and the success of one is the success of all.

Such a development could have only one possible result,--people who worked together must live together. Scattered villages gave place to industrial towns and cities. People were compelled to cooperate in their lives as well as in their labor.

The theory under which the new industrial society began its operations was ”every man for himself.” The development of the system has made every man dependent upon his fellows. The principle demanded an extreme individualism. The practice has created a vast network of inter-relations, that leads the cotton spinner of Ma.s.sachusetts to eat the meat prepared by the packing-house operative in Omaha, while the pottery of Trenton and the clothing of New York are sent to the Yukon in exchange for fish and to the Golden Gate for fruit. Inside as well as outside the nation, the world is united by the strong hands of economic necessity. None can live to himself, alone. Each depends upon the labor of myriads whom he has never seen and of whom he has never heard.

Whether we will or no, they are his brothers-in-labor--united in the Atlas fellows.h.i.+p of those who carry the world upon their shoulders.