American Political Ideas Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal HistoryFiske, John
Philosophy
American Political Ideas Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History
Fiske, John
United States -- History -- Philosophy; United States -- Politics and government
parts of Massachusetts may sleep securely without locking his
front-door. We have not yet done away with robbery and murder, but we
have at least made private warfare illegal; we have arrayed public
opinion against it to such an extent that the police-court usually makes
short shrift for the misguided man who tries to wreak vengeance on his
enemy. Is it too much to hope that by and by we may similarly put public
warfare under the ban? I think not. Already in America, as wre have
seen, it has become customary to deal with questions between states just
as we would deal with questions between individuals. This we have seen
to be the real purport of American federalism. To have established such
a system ovrer one great continent is to have made a very good beginning
towards establishing it over the world. To establish such a system in
Europe will no doubt be difficult, for here we have to deal with an
immense complication of prejudices, intensified by linguistic and
ethnological differences. Nevertheless the pacific pressure exerted upon
Europe by America is becoming so great that it will doubtless before
long overcome all these obstacles. I refer to the industrial competition
between the old and the new worlds, which has become so conspicuous
within the last ten years. Agriculturally Minnesota, Nebraska, and
Kansas are already formidable competitors with England, France, and
Germany; but this is but the beginning. It is but the first spray from
the tremendous wave of economic competition that is gathering in the
Mississippi valley. By and by, when our shameful tariff--falsely called
"protective"--shall have been done away with, and our manufacturers
shall produce superior articles at less cost of raw material, we shall
begin to compete with European countries in all the markets of the
world; and the competition in manufactures will become as keen as it is
now beginning to be in agriculture. This time will not be long in
coming, for our tariff-system has already begun to be discussed, and in
the light of our present knowledge discussion means its doom. Born of
crass ignorance and self-defeating greed, it cannot bear the light. When
this curse to American labour--scarcely less blighting than the; curse
of negro slavery--shall have been once removed, the economic pressure
exerted upon Europe by the United States will soon become very great
indeed. It will not be long before this economic pressure will make it
simply impossible for the states of Europe to keep up such military
armaments as they are now maintaining. The disparity between the United
States, with a standing army of only twenty-five thousand men withdrawn
from industrial pursuits, and the states of Europe, with their standing
armies amounting to four millions of men, is something that cannot
possibly be kept up. The economic competition will become so keen that
European armies will have to be disbanded, the swords will have to be
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