ack of transportation
facilities; their "world" was small, including the basin of the
Mediterranean and the land surrounding the Persian Gulf and the Indian
Ocean, nevertheless, they set out, one after another, to conquer it.
To-day the rapid accumulation of surplus and the speed and ease of
communication, the spread of world knowledge and the larger means of
organization make it even more necessary than it was of old for the
rulers of an empire to find a larger and ever larger place in the sun.
The forces are more pressing than ever before. The times call more
loudly for a genius with imagination, foresight and courage who will use
the power at his disposal to write into political history the gains that
have already been made a part of economic life. Let such a one arise in
the United States, in the present chaos of public thought, and he could
not only himself dictate American public policy for the remainder of his
life, but in addition, he could, within a decade, have the whole
territory from the Canadian border to the Panama Canal under the
American Flag, either as conquered or subject territory; he could
establish a Chinese wall around South American trade and opportunities
by a very slight extension of the Monroe Doctrine; he could have in hand
the problem of an economic if not a political union with Canada, and
could be prepared to measure swords with the nearest economic rival,
either on the high seas or in any portion of the world where it might
prove necessary to join battle.

Such a program would be a departure from the traditions of American
public life, but the traditions, built by a nation of farmers, have
already lost their significance. They are historic, with no contemporary
justification. The economic life that has grown up since 1870 of
necessity will create new public policies.

The success of such a program would depend upon four things:

1. A coordination of American economic life.

2. A fast grip on the agencies for shaping public opinion.

3. A body of citizens, martial, confident, restless, ambitious.

4. A ruling class with sufficient imagination to paint, in warm
sympathetic colors, the advantages of world dominion; and with
sufficient courage to follow out imperial policy, regardless of ethical
niceties, to its logical goal of world conquest.

All four of these requisites exist in the United States to-day, awaiting
the master hand that shall unite them. Many of the leaders of American