EDUCATIONAL ADVANCE 557 



attempts which have been made to cope with the question in a more or 

 less intelligent manner. 



The entrance of the United States and other important industrial 

 nations upon a policy of commercial expansion, the growth of im- 

 perialism and the prevalence of the desire to exploit the less industrially 

 progressive nations, mark the beginning of a new epoch in our national 

 life. Specialization of industry and subdivision of labor now assume 

 new aspects. Capital becomes international; while labor still remains 

 upon a national basis. Mr. Hobson and others have pointed out that 

 the backward nations will now assume the place hitherto occupied by 

 the great mass of the unskilled in the home country. Humanitarian 

 and democratic tendencies are in danger of receiving a check. Capital 

 in a new, rapidly developing country finds opportunity for invest- 

 ments in improvements; but in a more highly developed, but still 

 progressive country, it is obliged, unless there are opportunities for 

 investments in foreign countries, to seek investment in directly 

 productive enterprises which produce articles for the consumption of 

 the great mass of the people. If there is no opportunity for foreign 

 investment of capital, industrial progress will necessitate an improve- 

 ment in the consumptive power of the masses. Economic and ethical 

 aims begin to draw into closer relationship. The possibility of 

 enormous investments of capital in South America and Asia is some- 

 thing which threatens to affect the industrial, social and educational 

 welfare of .the American people. " Once encompass China with a net- 

 work of railroads and steamer services, the size of the labor market 

 to be tapped is so stupendous that it might well absorb in its develop- 

 ment all the spare capital and business energy the advanced European 

 nations and the United States can supply for generations." 6 China and 

 the Chinese workers are a danger because of the low standards of living 

 which prevail in the Asiatic nation, and the consequent ease with which 

 the Chinese people may be exploited. If increased manufacturing and 

 commercial activity in China is not accompanied by a corresponding 

 increase in the standard of living, the American farmer and the 

 American workman are doubtless imperilled by the situation. The edu- 

 cational movement of the last two or three decades is essentially a 

 working class movement; and its future is bound up in the welfare 

 of the industrial and agricultural classes. 



6 Hobson, "Imperialism," p. 334. 



