The United States has entered into the field of world politics too late in the day to secure trade by other than competitive power. The earth is now mapped out, and few boundaries will be changed in the future except as it may be deemed wise or advantageous to create more or less self-governing communities. Participation in the financing of new or new-old governments will prove of little avail, for money is now international, and the New York firm which underwrites its allotted portion of an international loan has its branches or even its parent house in Europe, and cannot use its power to draw trade to America without giving offense elsewhere. It really makes no difference in modern times which nation furnishes the money to take up a large issue of securities, for in the end they find their resting-place where there is money willing to be tied up, and this is generally in France, England, or Germany. A debtor nation like the United States, especially one whose people can find active employment for surplus funds at more profit than is offered by government loans, cannot be rated as an international money-lender.
The demand for an international or equal participation in any great money transaction comes in reality not from keen and equal competition for the privilege of investment, but from the machinations of international money, which desires the backing and security of a harmonious group of powerful governments to enforce its terms and insure the collection of the debt without friction on the day it may become due. With this backing the underwriters are assured of their great profits as it decreases the difficulties of unloading the securities upon an investing public at an advanced figure. The modern international loan carries with it no special trading rights, for all governments must now insist upon and obtain for its citizens abroad treatment like unto those accorded other nationalities.
To reduce the cost of production, facilitate the shipping of goods, and meet the local needs of foreign markets, or in other words to conduct foreign trading on an intelligent and scientific basis, is the one hope of the people of the United States in the world expansion of their industries and the profitable employment of labor. In the long run no nation stands a better chance of holding its own by reason of the self-contained character of material resources, the climatic stimulus to work and invention, the so-called unsophisticated enthusiasm of the people for practical accomplishment, and the mixture of racial strength in the make-up of the community. When the home market strikes a balance between production and consumption, and a surplus for export can be relied upon every year, it is reasonable to assume that the same genius will be applied to conquering the foreign market that has been developed at home. In no place in the world is there opportunity for greater gain for American trade than in Africa even to-day, while the future presents no such limitations as are met with in more highly commercially developed areas.
VIOLENCE IN THE WOMAN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT
A DISAVOWAL OF THE MILITANT POLICY
BY MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT
President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (Great Britain)
I WRITE from the standpoint of those who regard the women’s movement for political freedom as incomparably the most important political fact of the present day; and who look upon the women’s movement, as a whole, in its social, economical, political, industrial, and educational developments as one of the most remarkable events which have ever taken place in the history of the world. I do not know where one could look for another so nearly universal in its operation, making itself felt in every country in the world, in all civilizations, whether eastern or western, and affecting the well-being of such masses of men and women of all races and nations.