The Audacious WarBarron, Clarence W. (Clarence Walker)
History
The Audacious War
Barron, Clarence W. (Clarence Walker)
World War, 1914-1918
Then we could see even more clearly the spirit of brotherhood and
nationality that stands out resplendent as the soul of France. We
should see the spirit of empire and of trade, interknit with
administrative justice, as the soul of Great Britain. We should see
Germany an uncouth giant in the center of Europe, viewing all about him
with suspicion, and demanding to know why, as the youngest, sturdiest,
best organized, and hardest working European nation, he is not entitled
to overseas or world empire.
But few persons on this side have comprehended the relation of this
great war to the greatest commercial prizes in the world; the shores of
the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, with its Bagdad Railroad headed for the
Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia with its great oil-fields, undeveloped and a
source of power for the recreation of Palestine and all the lands
between the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and Asia.
The greatest study for Americans to-day is the spirit of nations as
shown in this war, and great lessons for the United States may be found
in the finance, business, patriotism, and justice that stand forth in
the British Empire as never before. She is rolling up a tremendous
war-power within her empire and throughout Europe, encircling the
German war-power. But she is likewise looking to her own people and
her own workers, filling her own factories and every laboring hand to
the full that she may keep her business and profits at home, and with
her business and profits and accumulated capital and income prosecute
the greatest war of history.
She is not unmindful in any respect of what the war may send her way.
In the breaking-away and the breaking-up of Turkey, she sees a clear
field for Egypt, the realization of the dream of Cecil Rhodes of the
development of the whole of Africa by a Cape to Cairo Railroad, and she
sees her own empire and peoples belting the world in power, usefulness,
and justice, and with a sweep and scope for enterprise and development
beyond all the previous dreams of this generation.
The United States, with hundreds of millions of banking reserves
released and giving base for a business expansion double any we have
had before, seems suddenly paralyzed in its business activities and,
comprehending only that the loaf of bread is a cent higher and a pound
of cotton a few cents lower, it is wondering on which side of its bread
the butter is to fall.
Meanwhile, it talks politics, asks if prosperity here is to come during
or after the war; and having little comprehension of the meaning of the
national throbs that on the other side of the globe are pulsating the
world into a new era of light, liberty, and expansion by individual
labor, it refuses to take up its daily home-task and go forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account