is clearly
made, the imperial class will sacrifice the happiness, the health, the
longevity, and the lives of the propertyless class in the interest of
"law and order" and "the protection of property." The stories of the
Roman populace; of the French peasants under Louis XIV; of the English
factory workers (men, women and children) during the past hundred years,
and of the low skilled workers in the United States since the Civil
War, furnish ample proof of the correctness of this contention. The
life, liberty and happiness of the individual citizen is a matter of
small importance so long as the empire is saved.

A crisis in imperial affairs is always regarded, by the ruling class, as
a legitimate reason for curtailing the rights of the people. Under
ordinary circumstances, the imperial class will gain rather than lose
from the exercise of "popular liberties." Indeed, the exercise of these
liberties is of the greatest assistance in convincing the people that
they are enjoying freedom and thus keeping them satisfied with their
lot. But in a period of turmoil, with men's hearts stirred, and their
souls aflamed with conviction and idealism, there is always danger that
the people may exercise their "unalienable right" to "alter or abolish"
their form of government. Consequently, during a crisis, the imperial
class takes temporary charge of popular liberties. Every great empire
engaged in the recent war passed through such an experience. In each
country the ruling class announced that the war was a matter of life and
death. Papers were suppressed or censored; free speech was denied; men
were conscripted against will and conscience; constitutions were thrust
aside; laws "slumbered"; writers and thinkers were jailed for their
opinions; food was rationed; industries were controlled--all in the
interest of "winning the war." After the war was won, the victors
practiced an even more rigorous suppression while they were "making the
peace." Then followed months and years of protests and demands, until,
one by one, the liberties were retaken by the people or else the
war-tyranny, once firmly established, became a part of "the heritage of
empire." In such cases, where liberties were not regained, the plain
people learned to do without them.

Liberty is the price of empire. Imperialism presupposes that the people
will be willing, at any time, to surrender their "rights" at the call of
the rulers.

5. _The Universality of Empire_