JAPAN AND THE "IRREPRESSIBLE EXPANSION" DOCTRINE
forced application of an "irrepressible expansion" doctrine to China, or to Siberia, will give to the Power or Powers applying the doctrine a position of suzerain over China and Siberia, with annexation distinctly forecast.
Ethical Foundations of the Doctrine
It is difficult to discover any genuine ethical basis for the doctrine of "irrepressible expansion." Henry George attempted to establish that in his demonstration of the "single tax" idea, which rested on the thesis that land is the universal property of the human race and cannot be sequestered in the interests or at the will of individuals or of any section of society. But Henry George did not attempt to extend his thesis to international relations; to assert the moral right of a nation, or a people, which lacks land and the natural products of the earth within their native domain to demand and to take those things from other peoples and nations which have more of them proportionately. As expounded by George, the idea was restricted to a single nation, and its operation kept to national domain, and was dependable upon the popular consent as legally determined.
The George thesis, which is the law of Eminent Domain expanded to include popular rights as well as public rights, might, if applied to the positions of the United States and Canada work out as follows: The United States grow to have 300,000,000 population and the people become cramped, or think they were cramped, within the present national territory; Canada would not grow so rapidly, and would have only 20,000,000 population within a larger area: it therefore would be right for the United States to annex Canada, or take as much Canadian territory as Americans thought they needed. And if the United States had the FORCE to make it good, such a doctrine
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