The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-SupremacyStoddard, Lothrop
History
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
Stoddard, Lothrop
Caucasian race; Race relations
"And since there will be no danger from the competition of white workmen,
but rather from the white man's ships, the white man's merchants, his
inventions, his produce--it will be these which will be subjected to
humiliating conditions.... It is not a very far cry from tariffs on goods
to tariffs and restrictions on foreign shipping, on foreign merchants, on
everything foreign--restrictions which by imposing vast and unequal
burdens on the activities of aliens will soon totally destroy such
activities.... What can very easily happen is that the federation of
eastern Asia and the yellow races will be finally arranged in such a
manner as to exclude the white man and his commerce more completely than
any one yet dreams of."[146]
This latter misfortune may be averted by concerted white action, but it is
difficult to see how the gradual elimination of white goods from Asiatic
markets as the result of successful Asiatic competition can be averted.
Certainly the stubborn maintenance of white political domination over a
rebellious Asia would be no remedy. That would merely intensify swadeshi
boycotts in the subject regions, while in the lands freed from white
political control it would further Japan's policy of excluding everything
white. If Asiatics resolve to buy their own products instead of ours we
may as well reconcile ourselves to the loss. Here again frank recognition
of the inevitable will enable us to take a much stronger and more
justifiable position on the larger world-aspects of the problem.
For Asia's industrial transformation is destined to cause momentous
reactions in other parts of the globe. If Asiatic industry really does get
on an efficient basis, its potentialities are so tremendous that it must
presently not only monopolize the home-markets but also seek to invade
white markets as well, thus presenting the white world with commercial and
economic problems as unwelcome as they will be novel.
Again, industrialization will in some respects aggravate Asiatic longings
for migration and dominion. In my opening pages I mentioned
industrialization as a probable reliever of population-pressure in Asiatic
countries by affording new livelihoods to the congested masses. This is
true. But, looking a trifle farther, we can also see that
industrialization would stimulate a further prodigious increase of
population. Consider the growth of Europe's population during the
nineteenth century under the stimulus of the industrial revolution, making
possible the existence in our industrialized Europe of three times as many
people as existed in the agricultural Europe of a hundred years ago. Why
should not a similar development occur in Asia? To-day Asia, though still
upon a basis as agricultural as eighteenth-century Europe, contains fully
900,000,000 people. That even a partially industrialized Asia might
support twice that number would (judging by the European precedent) be far
from improbable.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account