The Age of Extra-Continental Expansion and of New Economic Development.
To begin with, the student must be taught that this last generation in America has witnessed two almost entirely new developments: (1) the extra-continental expansion of the United States, and (2) the growth of enormous combinations of labor and of capital. The first reached its climax in the Spanish-American War, the acquisition of the Philippines and of Porto Rico, the assumption of a quasi-protectorate over the republics of Central America, and the interference in the affairs of China and Japan. With the details of this movement we shall not attempt to deal in this article. Instead we shall devote all of our space to a consideration of the second series of events.
The history and the results of the growth of these large combinations of labor and of capital present themselves in three more or less distinct phases: (a) the struggle of the laborer for his full share in the distribution of wealth; (b) the development of capitalistic enterprise through the large corporations; and (c) the effort of the consumer to keep from being crushed by the weight of the two contending forces.
Though the interest of the consumer in these new economic problems is destined, in the opinion of many students, to become the paramount one, up to the present time it has received but little direct attention from constructive statesmen, and it does not, therefore, properly belong among the subjects to be discussed in the history class room. The teacher may, nevertheless, call the attention of his students to the evidences of the beginning of the definite movement to protect the interests of the consumer: the recent Pure Food Acts, the legislation of the various states designed to limit the profits of railway and other public service corporations, and the widespread agitation of the present day over the high cost of living.