should have said "threaten" instead of "negotiate" for that was
plainly what he meant. But statesmen have to be careful in their use of
words.

"--Unless we can obtain capital with which to develop our wealth. The
great money-lending countries, England and France, ought in their own
interests to pour capital into our republics. The return, in the end,
would be enormous. But more important still, they would establish
a balance of power in the western world. Why do not your financiers
understand?"

Again Ascher. Battleships are to be towed across the ocean, from the
ship yards of the Clyde to these far-off seas, at the ends of the
gossamer threads which Ascher spins. The Gospel and international
politics are caught in the same web. I seemed to see Diocletian the
Emperor and Saint John, who said, "Love not the world," doing homage
together to the power of capital, leading each other by the hand through
the mazes of the system of credit.

I saw beautiful scenes, wide harbours where stately ships lay anchored,
through whose shining gates fleets of steamers trudged. I never escaped
from the knowledge that the gossamer threads stretched from mast to
mast, a rigging more essential than the ropes of hemp and wire. I
saw the lines of steel on which trains go, stretched out across vast
prairies, and knew that they were not in reality lines of steel at all
but gossamer threads. I saw torrents made the slaves of man, the weight
of falling water transmuted into light and heat and force to drive cars
swiftly through city streets; but all the wheels and giant masses of
forged steel were tied together by these same slender threads which
Ascher spun in the shrine of that Greek temple of his, Ascher and his
fellow bankers.

Always the desire was for more capital. There was room for thousands of
ships instead of hundreds. There were whole territories over which no
trains ran. There was potentiality of wealth so great that, if it were
realised, men everywhere would be raised above the fear of want. A whole
continent was crying out to Ascher that he should fling his web across
it, join point to point with gossamer, in Amazonian jungles, Peruvian
mountain heights, Argentine plains and tropical fruit gardens.

I met and talked with many men whose outlook upon life was profoundly
interesting to me. Those whom I came to know best were Englishmen or
men of English origin. Some of them had built up flourishing businesses,
selling the product