dominion are sufficient to afford a theatre for the activities of her citizens for centuries to come, and the work of civilizing the unnumbered hordes under her jurisdiction will tax to the utmost the powers of her surplus population. Whether England desires any large additional territories added to her empire is doubtful, for it would appear as though she has her hands about full, that she has about all the ground which she can cultivate thoroughly.

Germany and the United States are young giants which have not yet arrived at a realization of their real strength. They are fountains of energy, Atlases on whose shoulders might rest a world. In Germany the births exceed the deaths by eight or nine hundred thousand a year. The increase of the population from 1895 to 1900 was more than four millions, notwithstanding emigrants who have gone into the remotest corners of the earth. Germany needs colonies; she ought to have them, she must have them. The man who loves savages and hates civilized men will oppose Germany in her legitimate efforts to provide outlets for her surplus population and products. In what direction German interests will lead her to extend her territory I do not know, but the larger the number of German emigrants who go to South America or as to that matter to North America the better it will be for the world.

As to the United States, I believe she has just fairly commenced to grow. The whole American continent, except Canada, ought to be ours, and I believe it will be. If I see aright, the finger of destiny points that way.

A

CHAPTER II

ENGLAND AS A CIVILIZING POWER

On, on, you noblest English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

SHAKESPEARE.

LL civilized men owe to England a debt of gratitude which is immeasurable. She has been, and is to-day, the mightiest factor in the world for good. It is England who has made it possible for a white man to live on some part of every one of the six continents. In South America the spot of safety is small. Mother of nations, home and birthplace of law and order and progress, England stands to-day a supreme factor in the development of the world.

There is to-day, thanks to England, a band of civilized governments encircling the world. Science and education have followed in the wake of commerce, and when the guns of England have blazed a hole through the walls of barbarism, her system of freedom and justice has followed like a mighty torch illumining the dark places. The crimes and superstitions and tyrannies and pestilences of the past have melted away before the white light of her progress, and millions, nay, hundreds of millions, who were sunk in utter helplessness and despair, have at last caught a glimpse of the Star of Hope. Where squalor and misery and filth and death lurked, and famine slew thousands, there are now peace and happiness and cleanliness and plenty. Where fanatics buried sorrowing widows alive, or murdered helpless babes under the feet of elephants, there is now hope in the presence of death. Where the cruelty and rapacity of bandit chiefs filled regions with fear, there is now luxury and splendor; the whistle of the locomotive is heard, the hum of the factory, the glad shout of happy school children. Incomparable England! Since the sun commenced to shine no other nation has done the world so much good. Where the English flag flies there is peace, prosperity, safety, freedom.

In her work of colonization there has been but little sentiment; she is a practical nation. Suppose England, and not the United States, had been dealing with Cuba at the outbreak of the Spanish War. Do you suppose she would have wasted breath in perfervid declarations of humanitarian ideals? Not at all. England must have smiled broadly when our Congress, with as much emotionalism as a

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bevy of old maids at a Mothers' Convention, passed its celebrated resolution pledging the United States to give Cuba freedom. What sentimental twaddle that resolution was!

An Englishman does not apologize for the presence of his flag anywhere. He does not feel that by extending the English government over a semi-barbarous country he is doing the people of that country any wrong. He rather feels that he is conferring a great benefit upon them, that the flag which is good enough for him is good enough for them, that the world is made the better for respecting the principles and practices of civilization. Nor is there very much nonsense about the English government in its dealings with these people. If they behave, it treats them well. No other country in the world can govern colonies like England. No honest, hard-working, decent man, be he black or yellow or copper colored, be he Malay or Indian or Mongolian, has any fear of the power of England. He knows that power will be used for his defence. It is the rascal, the murderer, the criminal, who fears the power of England. The American people are so accustomed to England and her ways that we take them as a matter of We seldom stop to think what a tremendous power in the world for good England is.

course.

Italy contains only one hundred and ten thousand square miles, inhabited by a homogeneous people, with all parts of the country readily accessible to the central government. The British Empire comprises nearly twelve millions of square miles of land, with a population of four hundred millions, embracing every race and in every clime, — a diversity in population and a variety of conditions such as have never before been congregated together in one empire. And yet I will venture the assertion that there are more assassinations, more murders, a larger number of bandits, in the little country of Italy than there is in the whole immense British Empire! And the machinery of that vast empire is administered with one thousandth part of the friction that it takes to run any one of the little South American "republics."

Some idea of the magnitude of England's work for civilization may be obtained by a comparison of our own size and that of the countries she rules:

England contains

The British Empire contains

50,867 square miles 11,908,378 square miles

For each square mile in England, she rules about 225 square miles of the rest of the earth.

Population of England

Population of British Empire

27,483,490 400,000,000

In other words, every Englishman governs himself and fourteen other persons besides, and governs them all well. And in this act of

governing these countries the Englishman has not only been of incalculable benefit to the people governed, but he has himself derived great benefits from it, while civilization remains his debtor for all time to come.

Has this enlightened policy of England in any wise imposed the burdens of militarism on her people at home? By no means; for England is to-day the freest and most liberal government of the world, next to the United States. In every respect her citizens have as ample rights and liberties as have the people of the United States. Barring presidential elections and a little extra ceremony about the Crown, an observer would have to be keen-eyed who could detect any real difference in the liberties enjoyed by the two peoples.

While there have been no hypocritical promises on the part of England to grant her colonies liberty or independence, she has gone ahead, establishing the best governments in the world in those selfsame colonies. Never before have the inhabitants of those colonies enjoyed such a large measure of freedom, security, and happiness. England has demonstrated to the world that in the art of government she is facile princeps.

While England has been carrying the banner of righteousness over the waste places of the earth, it is pertinent to inquire what our own country is doing.

The United States has a population of 80,000,000. If each American governed himself and fourteen other people, the United States would control colonies with a population of 1,132,000,000, which is more than the population of the world outside the jurisdiction of civilized governments. The principal countries of the world which are only semi-civilized are the South American countries, China, and Turkey. Spain, Italy, and Russia leave a great deal to be desired in the administration of justice, and in many sections of those countries things are wellnigh intolerable. But they appear to be gradually working out their own salvation, and in them it is to be hoped that evolution, even though it be slower than the wrath of the gods, will finally bring about better conditions.

But in China, Turkey, and the northern portion of South America the conditions are altogether hopeless, so far as the people themselves are concerned. Unless outside force is impressed upon them, not in a thousand years will one of those countries become civilized like England or the United States.

The interest of the United States in Turkey and China is somewhat remote, and we may well let the European nations assume the responsibility of establishing civilized governments there. But the United States is directly and indirectly responsible for the condition of affairs in South America. By promulgating the Monroe Doctrine, by making it a cardinal principle in our national policy, we have become responsible for the conduct of these countries. Castro and Nuñez and

Marroquin and Jiminez, all of them stand before the world as our protégés. Now let us compare the records of the United States with those of England.

Alaska is not properly a colony or a dependency; it is a territory, and should be treated as such in this discussion. Leaving out Alaska, the territory governed by the United States as dependencies or colonies comprises 125,665 square miles, a tract less than one half the size of Texas. We then have only one square mile of colonial territory to twenty-eight square miles of mainland. In proportion to the area of the mother country, England has 6300 times the colonial area that the United States possesses.

When we turn from the consideration of the relative area of the United States and her colonies to their relative population, the result is not quite so disproportionate.

From this it will be seen that while one Englishman governs fourteen colonists, it takes eight Americans to govern one colonist. The power in this respect executed by the Englishman is one hundred and twelve times as great as that of an American. Each Englishman is doing one hundred and twelve times as much in the world on behalf of civilization as an American, taken man for man.

When the relative sizes of the two countries, England and the United States, are considered, the disproportion becomes very much greater. For each square mile of England 225 square miles of the earth are brought under subjection, while for each square mile of the territory of the United States there is only one six-thousandth part of that amount.

These facts are well worth remembering. The United States should stand for growth and progress. In the march of civilization it should not be behind England or any other country. Its flag stands for freedom. No American need apologize for his flag; rather he should thank God for it and for the people back of it, and devoutly hope that the day will soon come when the liberty, justice, national