The Next Great Word in the Evolution of Peace. 259 



J I. —HOW TO PROTECT THE NEW WORT.D. 



I'hc drama of recent European expansion has been 



\i lusively confined to the Old World : Africa, Asia, 



land the islands of the Pacific Ocean, large and small. 



>ince the Franco-Prussian War no important redistri- 



ition of territory has taken place in Europe. The 



-iiiall States continue to exist, like wedges in a structure, 



required for the safety of the larger parts. 



The New World has enjoyed absolute immunity ; 

 the unsuccessful attempt to establish an Empire in 

 Mexico, and the not more fortunate war of Spain to 

 recover certain islands from Peru, have left no lasting 

 historical trace, and, in fact, occurred before the 

 recrudescence of the present spirit of expansion had 

 set in. 



.American political emancipation from Europe 

 began in 1776, and was completed in 1824. The old 

 colonies became sovereign nations, holding sway, in the 

 majority of cases, over the same territory as to-day. 

 I he changes that have taken place have not been due 



any way to European interference. 



THE INDEPENDENCE OF PAN-AMERICA — 



The political independence of the American conti- 

 nent from Europe is practically complete. England, 

 France and Holland still hold some possessions, small 

 in size and importance. Canada and the other self- 

 governing British Colonies are, to all intents and 

 purposes, sovereign nations acknowledging a haughty 

 and conscious, if not a defiant, allegiance to the British 

 Empire, founded primarily on a sentiment of loyalty 

 to the common ideals of liberty and democracy, and 

 limited by the convenience of the Colonies themselves. 

 n the action of the Mother Country — supposing such 

 a possibility — were to endanger or to jeopardise the 

 evolution of liberty and democracy as the Colonies 

 understand them, or wittingly or accidentally to clash 

 with the interests and the convenience of the Colonies, 

 in the opinion of the latter, the allegiance to the 

 Empire would snap asunder like an overstrained bond. 



— STRENGTHENED BY EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION. 



Emancipation has proved propitious to the creation 

 of new ties between Europe and America. Blood and 

 treasure have steadily flowed from Europe to America 

 during the nineteenth century, principally during 

 j»s hitter half, contributing more decisively than any 

 other factor to the creation in North America of the 

 greatest democracy in the history of the race. A 

 similar phenomenon is being realised, even at this 

 moment, in the southernmost regions of the continent. 



These events are beyond the control of men, like 

 the course of the seasons, inexorably advancing at the 

 appointed time. 



Such happenings cannot be contemplated with 

 equanimity in the old empires of Europe, where, doubt- 

 less, it is thought that the national wanderers to distant 

 lands should there constitute themselves, as it were, 

 into a prolongation of the Mother Country, adding to 

 its prestige and political power, and not become merged 



in the population of another nation, perhaps a potential 

 rival in the future. 



It is quite conceivable that the United States may 

 one day be the bulwark of the liberties of the American 

 continent against German expansion, and yet, the 

 United States would stand for far less than they do in 

 the marshalling of the world's empires, if it were 

 possible to eliminate the German element from the life 

 of the nation. 



The attraction of the New World is as irresistible 

 to the European masses as the tides of the ocean, 

 limited solely by lack of information, or by sheer 

 material possibilities of emigration. In the first 

 place have come the United States and Canada ; 

 then the River Plate, the temperate sections of Brazil, 

 and Chili in a certain measure. And now, as the pres- 

 sure of taxation increases and science has begun to 

 teach how to live in the tropics, the tropical regions 

 begin to have their turn. 



THE HEAVY BURDEN OF THE EUROPEAN. 



All Europeans, in the United Kingdom, as well as 

 on the Continent, are born with a burden of taxation 

 representing the vicissitudes of past generations. The 

 cost of the Napoleonic wars, and of all the wars since 

 then waged by Europe at home and abroad, awaits 

 the European infant at the cradle and accompanies 

 him through life, curtailing his economic independence 

 and the result of his energies. Undoubtedly it may 

 be argued that such is the fee of empire and of greatness 

 and the boons of civilisation, which, in varying degrees 

 bless the different European nations ; even so, the fact 

 remains that such a burden does not exist in any of 

 the American nations. Public debt there represents 

 remunerative performance j the few occasional excep- 

 tions from this rule do not alter the case. 



The pomp and pageantry of monarchy, military 

 prowess on land and sea, resonant aristocratic names 

 and glorious traditions of warfare and victory, must 

 surely compensate the weary and life-long price 

 imposed upon the millions of the masses beyond all 

 sordid caU ulations. Yet they do not seem to think so ; 

 they emigrate whenever they can to lands where the 

 glitter of tradition may be contemplated from afar and 

 not felt as a yoke. 



'I'he process of developing and strengthening the 

 nations of America with European wealth and European 

 immigrants is bound to continue upon the lines that 

 it has followed heretofore, unless some fundamental 

 transformation of existing conditions should arise, 

 which it is not didicult to conceive, and which circum- 

 stances may render possible. 



A TEMPTING FIELD FOR EXPANSION. 



The territorial responsibilities of the Latin-American 

 nations are greatly in excess of their respective popu- 

 lations. The seventeen Republics from Mexico to 

 Cape Horn, with an area several times that of Central 

 Europe, contain at best seventy million inhabitants, 

 which could be comfortably housed in any one of the 



