ii8 JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL 



with protection for revenue and mutual presentation as the 

 basis of relations with the outside world. Great Britain alone 

 may hardly take the lead in returning to the protection policy 

 (though the export tax on coal is virtually a concession in that 

 direction), but she will welcome with a deep sense of relief the 

 formation of a protective cordon of colonies as the corner 

 stones of imperial solidarity. 



3. The lowering of tariffs on the part of the United States, 

 not only for the purpose of recognizing the right of the domestic 

 consumer to share in the reduced cost of iron and steel produc- 

 tion, but for the equally important purpose of admitting im- 

 ports more freely, in order that foreigners may buy more freely 

 of our exports. Only to a very limited extent will foreign 

 nations give up their gold to settle trade balances; beyond 

 that they must sell goods to us to buy goods from us. Our 

 own trade expansion will thus force our tariffs downward. 



4. As a consequence of higher tariffs against us on the 

 continent, and of the British imperial tariff union, limiting 

 our sphere of expansion in these directions, the keenest com- 

 petition will occur in the tropics and in the far east. Here 

 the British and German mercantile marine will readily demon- 

 strate their present superiority in that arm of commerical 

 efficiency, as compared with the United States. Hence the 

 advent of the United States as a mercantile sea power of the 

 first rank is one of the immediate consequences of our rise to 

 primacy in the world's production of iron and steel. As for 

 our ability to make steel ships, the shipyards of the New Eng- 

 land coast, of the Delaware, the Chesapeake, of San Francisco 

 bay, and Puget sound can speak for themselves; they only 

 await a greater volume of demand to rival both Great Britain 

 and Germany in this respect. Already our shipyards are the 

 best equipped with electrical and other labor saving devices. 



Do these developments make for peace, or tend to war? 

 That depends on how deep we look. On the surface, trade is 

 war; at heart, however, commerce ministei's more and more to 

 the fund of fellowship among nations. America, Great Brit- 

 ain, and Germany, being more nearly matched in industrial 

 and commercial equipment than ever before, these three great 

 competitors of the same racial household will have reached an 



