nation possesses, and America especially, in better organization and
fuller utilization of natural and human resources. It is evident that,
far from the age of great inventions and of mechanical development
drawing to a close, we are in the actual process of reaching new
discoveries in wealth production, which will make the most famous
advances of the nineteenth century mean by comparison. But without
drawing upon a speculative future, a better and more systematic
application of the knowledge which has been already tested--enlarged
production, elimination of waste, and improved business methods--is
clearly capable of doubling or trebling the output of material wealth
without involving any excessive strain upon human effort.

Here, as in other ways, America stands in a place of unique vantage by
reason of the magnitude and variety of her national resources, and the
vigor and enterprise of her people.

It is evident that, if any country can afford to stand alone in full
economic self-sufficiency, that country is America. It is feasible for
America to contract within very narrow limits her commercial and
political relations with the rest of the world, or, if she chooses, to
confine her commercial and financial relations to this continent,
leaving the old world to get on by itself as well as it can. This view
is, indeed, conformable with the main tradition of American history up
to the close of the last century. Even the Spanish war, with its sequel
of imperialism, was but a slight and reparable breach in this
tradition. The world war seems at first sight to have plunged America
deeper into the European trough. But even this more serious committal
is not irretrievable. She can step back to the doctrine and policy of
'America for Americans' and refuse any organic contact with a
troublesome, a quarrelsome and, as it seems, a ruined Europe. America's
economic status in Europe is not such as to preclude her taking this
course. I may be reminded that the indebtedness of Europe to America is
a solid economic bond, for it cannot be presumed that America would
pursue the policy of liberalism so far as to cancel this debt. But,
large as is this credit, it need not constitute a strong or a lasting
bond of commerce, compelling America to receive such large imports of
goods from Europe as materially to impair her self-sufficiency. A large
and increasing part of the interest and capital of this indebtedness
would be defrayed by the exp