82 THE POSSIBILITIES 



and Japanese those capacities for managing huge 

 iron masses which have been nurtured on the 

 Tyne ; the uproarious American spirit of enter- 

 prise pervades the Old World ; the French taste 

 for harmony becomes European taste ; and 

 German pedagogy improved, I dare say is 

 at home in Russia. So, instead of trying to keep 

 life in the old channels, it would be better to see 

 what the new conditions are, what duties they 

 impose on our generation. 



The characters of the new conditions are plain, 

 and their consequences are easy to understand. 

 As the manufacturing nations of West Europe 

 are meeting with steadily growing difficulties 

 in selling their manufactured goods abroad, and 

 getting food hi exchange, they will be compelled 

 to grow their food at home ; they will be bound 

 to rely on home customers for their manufac- 

 tures, and on home producers for then? food. 

 And the sooner they do so the better. 



Two great objections stand, however, in the 

 way against the general acceptance of such 

 conclusions. We have been taught, both by 

 economists and politicians, that the territories 

 of the West European States are so overcrowded 

 with inhabitants that they cannot grow all the 

 food and raw produce which are necessary for 

 the maintenance of then? steadily increasing 

 populations. Therefore the necessity of ex- 



