Social problems -- United States; United States -- Politics and government; United States -- Social conditions
The trouble is in the confusion of ideas which results in trying to
apply the same principle to two totally different classes of cases. A
State like Switzerland or Holland differs only in size from the greatest
of civilized nations, and in everything except size stands at least on a
level with them. Such a State is absolutely competent to preserve order
within its own bounds, to execute substantial justice, and to secure the
rights of foreigners. All that is necessary, therefore, is to guarantee
it against aggression; and when the great Powers have thus guaranteed
it, all covenanting to protect it from the aggression of any one of
their own number, their duty is done and the needs of the situation
completely met. In such a State the people themselves guarantee
stability, order, liberty, and protection for the rights of others.
There is not the slightest need of interfering with them, of seeking to
develop them, of protecting them from themselves. The needs of
civilization and humanity are sufficiently met by protecting them from
outside aggression.
There is no analogy at all with what occurs in a community unable to
keep elementary order, or to secure elementary justice within its own
borders, and unable or unwilling to do justice to foreign nations. The
very worst thing from the standpoint of humanity which can happen to
such a community may be to guarantee it against outside aggression. The
condition of Algeria under French rule is infinitely better than its
condition before the French came to Algeria, or than the condition of
Morocco at this moment. The condition of Turkestan under Russia has very
greatly improved. The condition of the Sudan at present, as compared
with the condition of the Sudan under Mahdist rule, is the most striking
example of all. In the same way, Panama has benefited immeasurably from
every standpoint by the presence of Americans on the Isthmus. Any
arrangement which had guaranteed Algeria against the French, or
Turkestan against the Russians, or the Sudan against the English, or
Panama against the Americans, would have been an arrangement against the
interests of humanity and civilization, and against the interests of the
natives of the countries themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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