e about by no plan of our conceiving but by the hand of God
who has led us into this war. We cannot turn back. We can only go
forward, with lifted and freshened spirit to follow the vision."

8. _The Open Road_

The American people took a long step forward on November 2, 1920. The
era of modern imperialism, begun in 1896 by the election of McKinley,
found its expression in the annexation of Hawaii; the conquest of Cuba
and the Philippines; the seizure of Panama, and a rapid commercial and
financial expansion into Latin America. In 1912 the Republicans were
divided. The more conservative elements backed Taft for reelection. The
more aggressive group (notably United States Steel) supported
Roosevelt. Between them they divided the Republican strength, and while
they polled a total vote of 7,604,463 as compared with Wilson's
6,293,910, the Republican split enabled Wilson to secure a plurality of
2,173,512, although he had less than half of the total vote.

President Wilson entered office with the ideals of "The New Freedom." He
was out to back the "man on the make," the small tradesman and
manufacturer; the small farmer; the worker, ambitious to rise into the
ranks of business or professional life. With the support, primarily, of
little business, Wilson managed to hold his own for four years, and at
the 1916 election to poll a plurality, over the Republican Party, of
more than half a million votes. He won, however, primarily because "he
kept us out of war." April, 1917, deprived him of that argument. His
"New Freedom" doctrines, translated into international politics (in the
Fourteen Points) were roughly handled in Paris. The country rejected his
leadership in the decisive Congressional elections of 1918, and he and
his party went out of power in the avalanche of 1920, when Harding
received a plurality nearly three times as great as the highest one ever
before given a presidential candidate (Roosevelt, in 1904). Every state
north of the Mason and Dixon Line went Republican. Tennessee left the
Solid South and joined the same party. The Democrats carried only eleven
states--the traditional Democratic stronghold.

The victory of Harding is a victory for organized, imperial, American
business. The "man on the make" is brushed aside. In his place stands
banker, manufacturer and trader, ready to carry American money and
American products into Latin America and Asia.

Before the United States lies the open road of imperialis