APPLETONS' 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1896. 



THE PROPOSED DUAL ORGANIZATION OF MANKIND. 



By Prof. WILLIAM G. SUMNER. 



EODBERTUS 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 

 lew regions by exploration and colonization. The period during 

 r hich the influences of the new extension of civilized settlements 

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

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

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

 3cent events, however, have forced this subject upon our atten- 

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

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

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

 tion of the inhabitants of the globe produced by the discovery 

 md settlement of the outlying continents. If anybody claims to 

 >e able now to take control of this most portentous evolution in 

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

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

 *amme of policy proposed. 

 The era of geographical discovery and adventure passes for an 

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

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

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

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



YOL. XLIX. 35 



