PROPOSED DUAL ORGANIZATION OF MANKIND. 437 



take action in protection of our citizens in China and Armenia ? 

 If Africa is opened up to commerce, do we mean to hold aloof 

 from a share in it ? Are we not already deeply interested in it so 

 far as it has advanced ? We have interests in Madagascar which 

 have already drawn us into the proceedings there, and which 

 promise to involve us still further. We accepted a role in the war 

 between China and Japan which was by no means that of an unin- 

 terested stranger. Will any one maintain that we could carry out 

 the policy of abstention in respect to that part of the world ? 



On the other hand, so long as European nations own colonies 

 in America, how can we rule the Western continent without 

 coming in collision with them ? Even if we should dispossess 

 them of those colonies, how would it be possible to rule the 

 Western continent, and to deny them any right to meddle in its 

 affairs, so long as their citizens may visit the same for business 

 or pleasure ? The notion that the world can be so divided that 

 we can rule one part and Europe the other, and thus never be 

 brought in collision with each other, is evidently a silly whim. 

 We may talk about " Western civilization " or "American ideas," 

 but these are only grandiloquent phrases. Everybody knows 

 that there is no civilization common to all America and different 

 from that of Europe ; there are no ideas common to all America 

 and different from European ideas. There has never been any 

 sympathy between North and South America, and there are only 

 few and comparatively feeble bonds of interest based on com- 

 merce or investments. Either North or South America has far 

 stronger bonds to Europe than they both have to each other. As 

 far as the external resemblance of " republics " is concerned, the 

 South American states have hitherto only made republican gov- 

 ernment ridiculous. The geographical neighborhood, on which 

 stress is often laid, can be seen by a glance at the map to be non- 

 existent. If it existed it would be of little importance compared 

 with economic distance, which is reckoned by cost, time, and 

 facility of transportation. The Western continents are divided 

 from each other by race, religion, language, real political institu- 

 tions, manners and customs, and, above all, by tastes and habits. 

 They entertain a strong dislike of each other. The United States 

 could never establish a hegemony over the Western world until 

 after long years of conquest. In their quarrels with European 

 states, it suits the South American states very well that the 

 United States should act the cat's paw for them, but it can not 

 be that their statesmen will be so short-sighted as to accept a pro- 

 tection which would turn into domination without a moment's 

 warning ; neither can it be possible that our statesmen will ever 

 seriously commit us to a responsibility for the proceedings of 

 South American states. 



