VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH AND POWER
1. Economic Foundations
The people of the United States, through their contests with the American Indians, the Mexicans and the Filipinos, have established that "supreme and extensive political domination" which is one of the chief characteristics of empire.
But the American Empire does not rest upon a political basis. Only the most superficial portions of its superstructure are political in character. Imperialism in the United States, as in every other modern country, is built not upon politics, but upon industry.
The struggle between empires has shifted, in recent years, from the political and the military to the economic field. The old imperialism was based on military conquest and political domination. The new "financial" imperialism is based on economic opportunities and advantages. Under this new régime, territorial domination is subordinated to business profit.
While American public officials were engaged in the routine task of extending the political boundaries of the United States, the foundations of imperial strength were being laid by the masters of industrial life—the traders, manufacturers, bankers, the organizers of trusts and of industrial combinations. These owners and directors of the nation's wealth have been the real builders of the American Empire.
As the United States has developed, the economic motives have come more and more to the surface, until no modern nation—not England herself—has such a record in the search for material possessions. The pursuit of wealth, in the United States, has been carried forward ruthlessly; brutally. "Anything to win" has been the motto. Man against man, and group against group, they have struggled for gain,—first, in order to "get ahead;" then to accumulate the comforts and luxuries, and last of all, to possess the immense power that goes with the control of modern wealth.
The early history of the country presaged anything but this. The colonists were seeking to escape tyranny, to establish justice and to inaugurate liberty. Their promises were prophetic. Their early deeds put the world in their debt. Forward looking people everywhere thrilled at the mention of the name "America." Then came the discovery of the fabulous wealth of the new country; the pressure of the growing stream of immigrants; the heaping up of riches; the rapacious search after more! more! the desertion of the dearest principles of America's early promise, and the transcribing of another story of "economic determinism."
Until very recent times the American people continued to talk of political affairs as though they were the matters of chief public concern. The recent growth and concentration of economic power have showed plainly, however, that America was destined to play her greatest rôle on the economic field. Capable men therefore ceased to go into politics and instead turned their energies into the whirl of business, where they received a training that made them capable of handling affairs of the greatest intricacy and magnitude.