WORLD'S POLITICS AND NINETEENTH CENTURY 297 



Any surmise of deterioration ought to be dissipated by noticing the 

 numerous and momentous questions which nations have of late been 

 settling by arbitration, the treaties of arbitration now existing, or the 

 erection, by the fifteen most powerful states on earth, of The Hague 

 Tribunal for quieting disputes such as once usually meant war. 



I cannot subscribe to the theory that the course of history is 

 directed wholly by economic causes, the so-called economic inter- 

 pretation of history. But there is one economic might which shapes 

 human events to an even greater extent than the advocates of that 

 theory have observed; I mean the money power; and it is among 

 the philanthropist's most gratifying notes that this incalculably 

 strong force is at every crisis of strained relations between nations 

 exerted on the side of peace. As a preservative of peace the money 

 power deserves rank alongside The Hague Tribunal. 



It is worth notice that the freest populations are the ones which 

 multiply the most rapidly. The population of the United States 

 and Great Britain with their dependencies and protectorates is now 

 some 522,000,000. Sir Robert Giffen a little time ago made the 

 population of Europe and of nations of European origin, like the 

 United States, something over 500,000,000; the United States, 

 80,000,000; the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the white 

 population of South Africa, 55,000,000; Russia about 135,000,000; 

 Germany, about 55,000,000; Austria-Hungary, 45,000,000; France, 

 40,000,000; Italy, 32,000,000; Spain and Portugal, 25,000,000; 

 Scandinavia, 10,000,000; Holland and Belgium, 10,000,000; other 

 European countries, 20,000,000. A century ago, adds Sir Robert, 

 the figure corresponding to this 500,000,000 would not have been 

 more than 170,000,000. 



The point is that the development was not uniform, but the most 

 marked in the Anglo-American section, where a population of some 

 20,000,000, which was about the figure for the United States and 

 the United Kingdom together a hundred years ago, has grown to 

 not less than 130,000,000. Russia and Germany also show remark- 

 able increases, but nothing like the Anglo-American. 



The system of " spheres of influence," so admirably elucidated by 

 Professor Reinsch, is a creation of the century, its chief exempli- 

 fication, at present, being in China, where Russia, Germany, Great 

 Britain, and France all have footholds. 



The storm-center of world politics, always in the East, has moved 

 on to the Far East, Great Britain and Russia continuing to be the 

 head contestants. 



Thwarted by Turkey in his resolve to connect the Black Sea for 

 naval purposes with all the oceans, the Muscovite reconnoiters 

 toward India, only to find the Khaibar Pass occupied by men he 

 has seen elsewhere. Nothing daunted, the British being busy in 



