16
in the newspapers, schools, colleges, and pulpits of the United States; or the campaign for intervention in Mexico that has been so persistently waged for years past. Differences in ideals, race, language, and religion help to develop hatred. The military caste, star-chamber diplomacy and political ambition play their part in fostering the war spirit, but they are not the germs of war. They are merely the medium in which the germs develop.
The germs of war lie deeper in the competition for economic advantages that has plagued mankind for ages, and that still rides like a nightmare on the neck of the human race.
6. The Economics of War.
Economic conflict has appeared in many forms. In the early dawn of history men were fighting for the fertile valleys of the world,—the Ganges, the Nile, the Tigris. Race after race swept down on these garden spots and drove out or enslaved those who held them. For ages, history was a record of the campaigns waged by vigorous hill-tribes against the more cultured, richer, and less vigorous valley tribes. Then came the wars over trade-routes, and the struggle for the control of seagoing commerce. And now, under the dominion of an industrial system that is founded on the machine, the factory, the railroad, the bank and the retail store comes the international competition for foreign markets.
The United States, despite its "mind your own business" traditions, is deeply involved with the other nations of the world, in the struggle for foreign markets. Just now "South American trade" is our watchword.
Germany held the bulk of the South American trade before the war. England, Belgium and France had a share. Until recent years the business interests of the United States were so busy with the conquest of the
