APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SOIEKCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1896. 



THE PROPOSED DUAL ORGANIZATION OF MANKIND. 



By Peof. WILLIAM G. SUMNER. 



RODBERTUS turned aside from his studies of taxation in the 

 Roman Empire, which had shown him the Roman city ex- 

 hausting and consuming the rest of the Roman world, to express 

 the opinion that the history of the last three hundred years is a 

 story of the exploitation of the outlying continents by the old 

 centers of civilization. This was an attempt to describe sum- 

 marily the significance for the human race of the opening up of 

 new regions by exploration and colonization. The period during 

 which the influences of the new extension of civilized settlements 

 has been at work is so short that it is impossible to define with 

 confidence its ultimate effects on the relation of the parts of the 

 race to each other, and on the fortunes of the race as a whole. 

 Recent events, however, have forced this subject upon our atten- 

 tion, for the " Monroe doctrine," as it has been recently affirmed 

 and construed, would be nothing less than a doctrine and policy 

 which some people are disposed to force upon the new organiza- 

 tion of the inhabitants of the globe produced by the discovery 

 and settlement of the outlying continents. If anybody claims to 

 be able now to take control of this most portentous evolution in 

 the life of the human race, and to dictate the course which it is to 

 take, it behooves us all to verify the doctrine and to test the pro- 

 gramme of policy proposed. 



The era of geographical discovery and adventure passes for an 

 era of glorious achievement by men, yet to what end did they 

 care to know and reach the outlying parts of the earth ? One 

 motive which led them was the gain of commerce. The products 

 of the Indies could be obtained in no other way, and the trade for 



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