American World Policies

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Walter Edward Weyl. American World Policies

PART I. OUR IDEALISTIC PAST. AMERICAN WORLD POLICIES

CHAPTER I. AMERICA AMONG THE NATIONS

CHAPTER II. THE SKELETON OF WAR

CHAPTER III. PEACE WITHOUT EFFORT

CHAPTER IV. AN UNRIPE IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER V. FACING OUTWARD

PART II. THE ROOT OF IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER VI. THE INTEGRATION OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER VII. THE ROOT OF IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER VIII. IMPERIALISM AND WAR

CHAPTER IX. INDUSTRIAL INVASION

CHAPTER X. THE REVOLT AGAINST IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER XI. THE APPEAL OF IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER XII. THE AMERICAN DECISION

PART III. TOWARDS ECONOMIC INTERNATIONALISM

CHAPTER XIII. NATURAL RESOURCES AND PEACE

CHAPTER XIV. AN ANTIDOTE TO IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER XV. AMERICAN INTERESTS ABROAD

CHAPTER XVI. PACIFISM STATIC AND DYNAMIC

CHAPTER XVII. TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER XVIII. THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

CHAPTER XIX. THE HIGHER IMPERIALISM

CHAPTER XX. THE FORCES OF INTERNATIONALISM

CHAPTER XXI. AN IMMEDIATE PROGRAMME

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The Great War has thrown America back upon itself. It has come as a test and challenge to all our theories. Suddenly, yet subtly, it has shaken our optimism and undermined our faith in the peaceful progress of humanity. Our isolation is gone, and with it our sense of security and self-direction. Americans, who a few days ago would have dared to abolish army and navy as a supreme earnest of good faith, reluctantly agree to arm. "Self-defence," they now say, "comes before progress. We must lay aside our hopes of a world at peace and must guard our gates."

Doubtless there is some exaggeration in our change of mood. Men speak as though a miracle had swept away the Atlantic Ocean, leaving us stranded on Europe's western shore. Fortunately the Ocean, always America's ally, still lies there, narrowed and curbed, yet three thousand miles of storm-swept water. Physically and morally, however, our isolation has dwindled. Dreadnaughts, submarines and airships can now reach us and our commerce, industry and national ambitions are interwoven with those of Europe. We shall never again stand aloof from the world.

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It was an ideal, good or bad, according to its interpretation. A more definitely integrated America, with a concrete forward-looking internal and foreign policy, could aid disinterestedly in untying the European tangle. In the main, however, the demand for Americanism took on an aggressive, jingoistic, red-white-and-blue tinge. Out of it arose an exaggerated change of mood toward the "hyphenate," the American of foreign, and especially German, lineage. Newspapers teemed with attacks upon this man of divided allegiance.

In other ways our agitation for a United America took a reactionary shape. Though a pacific nation, we experienced a sudden revulsion against pacifism and Hague tribunals, as though it were the pacifists who had brought on the war. Contempt was expressed for our industrialism, our many-tongued democracy, our policy of diplomatic independence. Those most opposed to Prussianism, as it has been defined, were most stubbornly Prussian in their proposals. We heard praises of the supreme education of the German barracks, and a clamour arose for universal service, not primarily industrial or educational but military in character. A decaying patriotism of Americans was deplored quite in the manner of Bernhardi. More than ever there was talk of national honour, prestige, the rights of America. Our former attitude of abstention from European disputes was called "provincial," and we were urged to fight for all manner of reasons and causes. Even though we cravenly desired peace, we were to have no choice. An impoverished Germany, beaten to her knees, was to pay her indemnity by landing an army in New York and holding that city for ransom. Around such futilities did many American minds play.

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