built up, having an enormous capitalization, and
many of them were dependent for their profits on the advantage of price
fixing that monopoly may be expected to bring. Then state and nation
stepped in and asserted their right to fix prices in the interest of the
consumer. The consequent political struggles illustrate the difficulties
besetting the Secretary of State in his somewhat similar attempt to
take the chief fruits from the powers which had just acquired Chinese
territory--an undertaking in which he had none of the support of legal
powers effective in the United States.

That Hay so promptly succeeded in putting at least a toe in the door
which he wished to open was due to a number of circumstances. Great
Britain, devoted to the principle of free trade, heartily approved of
his proposal and at once accepted its terms. The other powers expressed
their sympathy with the ideas of the note, but, in the case of Russia
at least, without the faintest intention of paying any heed to it. Hay
promptly notified each power of the others' approval and stated that,
with this unanimous consent, he would regard its acceptance of the
proposals as "final and definitive."

The force which Hay had used was the moral influence of world opinion.
None of the powers dared, with its hands fresh filled with Chinese
plunder, openly to assert that it had taken the spoils for selfish
reasons alone--at least, after another power had denied such purpose.
Hay saw and capitalized the force of conventional morality which,
however superficial in many cases, had influenced the European powers,
particularly since the time of the Holy Alliance. Accustomed to clothe
their actions in the garb of humanitarianism, they were not, when caught
thus red-handed, prepared to be a mark of scorn for the rest of the
world. The cult of unabashed might was still a closet philosophy which
even Germany, its chief devotee, was not yet ready to avow to the world.
Of course Hay knew that the battle was not won, for the bandits still
held the booty. He was too wise to attempt to wrench it from them, for
that indeed would have meant battle for which the United States was
not prepared in military strength or popular intention. He had merely
pledged these countries to use their acquisitions for the general good.
Though the promises meant little in themselves, to have exacted them was
an initial step toward victory.

In the meantime the penetration of foreign influences in