“The close of the 19th century, was remarkable as being a turning point in American affairs and the beginning of a new era. Previous to that time the United States had been a nation very much to itself. It had kept aloof from the politics of the rest of the world and had no policy in regard to it except to prohibit European nations from meddling in affairs of the western hemisphere or acquiring any further possessions in it. But before the century was out public opinion was accustoming itself to the idea that the foremost nation of the earth ought to take a more active and influential part in the general affairs of the world. The first thing designed to give weight to the influence of the country was the development of a powerful navy. It is power that inspires the consideration and respect of others. It was a favorite idea with many of the leaders of political thought that arbitration might become the last resort in the settlement of international disputes instead of the ancient plan, by which the contestants temporarily laid aside such civilization as they might have acquired, reduced themselves back to barbarism in murdering each other, destroying property, plundering commerce, and often spending more money several times over than the matter in dispute was worth. But even these statesmen saw that a plan favoring peace would come with much more force and authority from a nation having power to enforce it by war, and so all were glad to see the great navy built. “As the public lands became transferred to private ownership and prices steadily went up, attention was turned to the sparsely settled territories of neighboring countries, and the elements of a great party in favor of their annexation were developed in the ranks of all the parties, at the same time the theories of the land tax advocates received additional attention, especially from mechanics and the manufacturing classes. They reasoned that the increase in the value of land ought to belong to the state instead of to the people who had bought the land, and if the state had that increase, the interest on it would support the government and taxes could be abolished. The enormous amounts raised by taxation came at last from labor, they said, part of it in the way of tariffs on goods imported and consumed by workers and part by direct taxation on the products of labor and even on the means and appliances—tools shops and factories—by which wealth was produced. This mode of taxation they said was, as far as it went, a ban placed upon industry and a penalty upon the creation of wealth. They proposed therefore to take all the taxes off from the products of labor and seize the rents of land or so much of them as might be required for the support of the government, in that way getting the interest on the increase in the value of the land that had taken place since it passed into private hands and which they denominated “unearned increment.” This agitation