eat Britain and
Germany were at war during the twenty years that preceded 1914. The
issues are essentially the same in both cases,--commercial and economic
in character, and it is these economic and commercial issues that are
the chief causes of modern military wars--that are in themselves
economic wars which may at any moment be transferred to the military
arena.

British capitalists are jealously guarding the privileges that they have
collected through centuries of business and military conflict. The
American capitalists are out to secure these privileges for themselves.
On neither side would a military settlement of the issue be welcomed. On
both sides it would be regarded as a painful necessity. War is an
incident in imperialist policy. Yet the position of the imperialist as
an international exploiter depends upon his ability to make war
successfully. War is a part of the price that the imperialist must pay
for his opportunity to exploit and control the earth.

After Sedan, it was Germany versus Great Britain for the control of
Europe. After Versailles it is the United States versus Great Britain
for the control of the capitalist earth. Both nations must spend the
next few years in active preparation for the conflict.

The governments of Great Britain and the United States are to-day on
terms of greatest intimacy. Soon an issue will arise--perhaps over
Mexico, perhaps over Persia, perhaps over Ireland, perhaps over the
extension of American control in the Caribbean. There is no difficulty
of finding a pretext.

Then there will follow the time-honored method of arousing the people on
either side to wrath against those across the border. Great Britain will
point to the race-riots and negro-lynchings in America as a proof that
the people of the United States are barbarians. British editors will
cite the wanton taking of the Canal Zone as an indication of the
willingness of American statesmen to go to any lengths in their effort
to extend their dominion over the earth. The newspapers of the United
States will play up the terrorism and suppression in Ireland and there
are many Irishmen more than ready to lend a hand in such an enterprise;
tyranny in India will come in for a generous share of comment; then
there are the relations between Great Britain and the Turks, and above
all, there are the evidences in the Paris Treaty of the way in which
Great Britain is gradually absorbing the earth. Unless the power of
labor