i6 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tional commerce will presently bring the English-speaking people of 

 the world into one homogeneous body governed by the same common 

 law, the same common principles of action, and the same policy 

 in the collection of revenue. When thus united, there can be no com- 

 petition in the commerce of the world on the part of the continental 

 states of Europe under their present burdens — the blood tax of 

 standing armies and navies and the money tax of debts that can never 

 be paid. There have been within a few months two witnesses to the 

 growing influence and power of the English-speaking people when 

 united for the maintenance of commerce and for the conduct of the 

 works of peace, order, and industry: one is the warning of the 

 Chancellor of the Austrian Empire, calling upon the states of middle 

 Europe to unite their forces in order to remain capable of maintain- 

 ing government by privilege and taxation by force of arms; the other, 

 the recent manifesto of the enlightened ruler of Russia, calling upon 

 the states of continental Europe to disarm, lest they should hereafter 

 be incapable of competition with the English-speaking people of 

 the world when they become bound together by a union of mutual 

 service and by community of interest which without any formal 

 alliance will give to them the chief control in rendering service by the 

 exchange of product for product to all other states and nations, to the 

 mutual benefit of all who are thus joined in the bonds of peace. 



On my visit to Russia last year, to meet the leading economists 

 and statisticians of Europe, it was stated to me by well-informed men 

 that a plan had been considered by several continental states in 

 the event of war to change the present international custom by mak- 

 ing food products contraband of war, the purpose being to cripple 

 England. To such desperate conditions have some of the European 

 states been brought under the burden of the policy of blood and iron. 

 My comment upon this insane proposal was that I hoped it might 

 become a matter of public discussion, since nothing could so surely 

 and quickly bring about a commercial union of the English-speaking- 

 people, to the end that, even if no other alliance were made, their 

 navies might at any moment be combined for the protection of their 

 commerce, and for the total cessation of any interference by war ves- 

 sels or privateers with their traffic. 



The prime motive of this article is to remove from the minds of 

 our English friends many false impressions which I have constantly 

 met in my intercourse even among men who hold important posi- 

 tions, of which the address of Sir William Crookes is but an ex- 

 treme expression, and to bring into common view a comprehension 

 of the resources of this country and of the mutual dependence of the 

 United Kingdom and the United States in the supply and consump- 

 tion not only of wheat, but of all the other necessaries of life. 



