But conquered and
destroyed must be the Prussian war-machine of aggression, or crumbles the
art and industry of republican France and the democracy of English
speech, thought, and government.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LESSONS FOR AMERICA

Wealth is National Defense--Gold Mobilization--Food Supplies
International--No Financial Independence--Tariffs as War Causes--Are We
in a Fool's Paradise?

The lessons for the United States and for all America from this war are
so many that it is difficult to arrange them in order.

The first lesson is that nations can be no longer isolated units. A
hundred years ago the United States desired to be free from
Europe,--from its political system, its wage system, and its social
system. To-day the United States cannot desire to be freed from any
country in the world. Its Panama Canal, its demand for a mercantile
marine, for countries to take its cotton and cotton goods, and its
inquiry as to where it can get potash salts and chemical dyes, all show
the interrelation of modern business which has broken all national
boundaries.

England is talking to-day of a closer federation in her empire to
follow this war. She is asking why she alone should be the protector
of the seas, and of the peace of Europe, not only for herself and her
colonies, but for the whole world. She is already talking of a
federation for the empire by which Australia, Canada, etc., will have
direct representation in Parliament, and assist directly in bearing the
burden of the maintenance of peace. I doubt if a British federation
will strengthen the British Empire. Mutual interest is the great
federator. The unwritten Constitution of England has more binding
force than the written Constitution of the United States. The Triple
Entente is stronger and more binding than the Triple Alliance.

The whole world is interested in the maintenance of peace, and it
should not be the business of any one nation or empire to maintain the
peace of the world.

Secondly, if the burden is put upon England to maintain the peace of
the seas and the peace of Europe, she must have a growing empire to
support that burden.

Already the English people see the spread of her influence which is to
follow this war and make Cecil Rhodes's dream of a Cape to Cairo
railroad a reality for Africa. Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor are
hereafter to be restored in fertility and give a new civilization to
the shores of the eastern Medite