struggle into which we have plunged, for the
fact that it is the first struggle to involve the globe. No general
movement of man has been so wide-spreading, so far-reaching. Quite local
was the supremacy of any ancient people; likewise the rise to empire of
Macedonia and Rome, the waves of Arabian valor and fanaticism, and the
mediaeval crusades to the Holy Sepulchre. But since those times the
planet has undergone a unique shrinkage.

The world of Homer, limited by the coast-lines of the Mediterranean and
Black seas, was a far vaster world than ours of today, which we weigh,
measure, and compute as accurately and as easily as if it were a child's
play-ball. Steam has made its parts accessible and drawn them closer
together. The telegraph annihilates space and time. Each morning, every
part knows what every other part is thinking, contemplating, or doing. A
discovery in a German laboratory is being demonstrated in San Francisco
within twenty-four hours. A book written in South Africa is published by
simultaneous copyright in every English-speaking country, and on the day
following is in the hands of the translators. The death of an obscure
missionary in China, or of a whiskey-smuggler in the South Seas, is
served, the world over, with the morning toast. The wheat output of
Argentine or the gold of Klondike are known wherever men meet and trade.
Shrinkage, or centralization, has become such that the humblest clerk in
any metropolis may place his hand on the pulse of the world. The planet
has indeed grown very small; and because of this, no vital movement can
remain in the clime or country where it takes its rise.

And so today the economic and industrial impulse is world-wide. It is a
matter of import to every people. None may be careless of it. To do so
is to perish. It is become a battle, the fruits of which are to the
strong, and to none but the strongest of the strong. As the movement
approaches its maximum, centralization accelerates and competition grows
keener and closer. The competitor nations cannot all succeed. So long
as the movement continues its present direction, not only will there not
be room for all, but the room that is will become less and less; and when
the moment of the maximum is at hand, there will be no room at all.
Capitalistic production will have overreached itself, and a change of
direction will then be inevitable.

Divers queries arise: What is the maximum of commercial dev