The Americanization of the world

Front matter

M|@S:Slfil'S'i liiiBl

0DDD4fl3flfl53

^0'

Chapter I The English-speaking World — page J " II The Basis for Reunion^page 17

** ni The Americanization of Ireland — page 27

" rV Of South Africa— page 51

" V Of the West Indies and Thereafeoots— page 70

" VI Of Newfoundland and Canada — page 83

" VII Of Australia— page 123

** VHI A Crucible of Nations — page 145

PART n

THE REST OF THE WORLD

Chapter I Europe — page 16 J

" n The Ottoman Empire — page 183

" m Asia— page 199

" rV Central and South America— page 2J4

" V The Monroe Doctrine — page 229

" VI On International Arbitration— page 248

Contents

Part III How America Americanizes

Chapter I Religion — page 255

" n Literature and Journalism— page 276

" in Art, Science, and Music— page 304

" rV Marriage and Society— page 3i8

" V Sport — page 334

•*' VI The "American Invasion"— page 342

'* Vn Railways, Shipping, and Trusts— page 360

Part IV The Summing-up

Chapter I What is the Secret of American Success ?— page 38t

n A Look Ahead!— page 3%

" in Steps Towards Reunion — pcge 418

" IV The End Thereof— page 439 i 13he I

% AmericaLnizaLtion ©/ c^

*? the World ^

St "

1 5

*f By "2

I W. T. Stead I

6 ^

M M

JL.

The

of the World

Chapter First The 'English-Speaking "World

The Americanization of the world is a phrase which excites, quite needlessly, some resentment in Great Britain. It is even regarded as an affront to England to suggest that the world is being Americanized. Its true destiny of course is to be Anglicized. And many are quick to discern something of anti-patriotic bias in the writers who venture to call attention to the trend of the Twentieth Century.

To all such irate champions of England and the English it is sufficient to reply that, as the creation

Where John Bull Stands

of the Americans is the greatest achievement of our race, there is no reason to resent the part the Americans are playing in fashioning the world in their image, which, after all, is substantially the image of ourselves.

If we are afflicted with national vanity we can console ourselves by reflecting that the Americans are only giving to others what they inherited from ourselves. Whatever they do, all goes to the credit of the family. It is an unnatural parent who does not exult in the achievements of his son, even although they should eclipse the triumphs of his sire as much as the victories of Hannibal threw into the shade the exploits of Hamilcar.

Whatever may be the objections that are raised from one side or the other, I hope the reader, if he is a Briton, will at least be able to go so far with me as to rejoice in contemplating the achievements of the mighty nation that has sprung from our loins, and if he is an American, to tolerate the complacency Avith which John Bull sets down all his exploits to the credit of the family. Without that element of mutual sympathy, it is to be feared the survey of the process which I have dubbed the Americanization of the World, is not likely to tend to edification, but rather to recriminations, cavilings, and bitterness of spirit.

Of one thing the Briton is assured. However he may be outstripped and overshadowed by the American, no one can deprive us of the traditional glories which encompass the cradle of the race. "The purple

Of British Genesis

mist of centuries and of song" will never lift from these small islands on the northern seas.

We may lose our primacy in the forging- of iron and steel, but no "invasion" can deprive us of the indestructible renown possessed by the land which gave birth to Alfred and Cromwell, to Shakespeare and Milton, to Burns and Scott. And as men will ever think more highly of the City of the Violet Crown with its Groves of Academe, peopled with poets and sages, than of the geographically vast expanse of Asiatic empires, so it may well be that England may be a name worn ever nearer the great heart of mankind than that of the Continent-covering son of Anak, whose bulk overshadows the world.

At the same time — and I hasten to make this admission to pacify irate American readers resentful of the suggestion that John Bull stands to Brother Jonathan as Athens to Persia — it is possible that the American may stand to the Briton as Christianity stands to Judaism.

As it was through the Christian Church that the monotheism of the Jew conquered the world, so it may be through the Americans that the English ideals expressed in the English language may make the tour of the planet. The parallel is dangerously exact. For there is too much reason to fear that many Americans regard the English with the same unfilial ingratitude that many Christians regard the Jew. It is as useless to remind them that the men of the May- ■flotvcr were English, as it is to remind anti-Semites that Christ and His apostles were Jews. Yet it v.-as

The United States Leads

through the Christian Church, too often unmindful of its Jewish parentage, that the ethical ideals of the Jew permeated and civilized the world. The philosopher recognizes that the world-mission of the Jews was only fulfilled through the Nazarene whom they crucified ; and so in years to come the philosophical historian may record that the mission of the English fulfilled itself through the American. The Americanization of the world is but the Anglicizing of the world at one remove.

That the United States of America have now arrived at such a pitch of power and prosperity as to have a right to claim the leading place among the English-speaking nations cannot be disputed. The census returns at the beginning and the end of the Nineteenth Century are conclusive. The figures stand thus : — ■

If it be objected that the population of the United Kingdom is only a fraction of the King's subjects, let us add to the population of the United Kingdom every white-skinned person in the British Empire, and let us at the same time deduct from the population of the United States all men of color. The figures will stand thus : —

1801 igot

If any one objects that we have not included the myriads of India among British citizens, the answer is

The Decree of Destiny

easy. We are comparing the English-speaking communities. The right of leadership does not depend upon how many millions, more or less, of colored people we have compelled to pay us taxes. It depends upon the power, the skill, the wealth, the numbers of the white citizens of the self-governing State.

It may be said that it is absurd to group together as English-speaking men millions who, like the Canadians of Quebec and the colonists in Mauritius, only speak French, or, like the Dutch of South Africa, only speak the Taal. This, it may be objected, unfairly swells the British total. But against this we must offset the millions of emigrants who have studded the United States with patches of the Old World, and who, until the next generation has been passed through the schools, cannot be described as English speakers. Roughly speaking, the figures given above may be said to represent the comparative numerical strength of the two sections of the English-speaking world. The Republican section has forged ahead of that which clings to the Monarchy. Nor is there any prospect that their relative positions will be reversed. As John the Baptist said of Jesus of Nazareth, so Britain may say to the IViited States, "He must increase but I must decrease." The Baptist did not repine, neither should we.

The Briton, instead of chafing against this inevitable supersession, should cheerfully acquiesce in the decree of Destiny, and stand in betimes with the conquering American. The philosophy of common sense teaches us that, seeing we can never again be the first, standing alone, we should lose no time in uniting our for-

The Supreme Power

tunes with those who have passed us in the race. Has the time not come when we should make a resolute effort to realize the unity of the English-speaking race ? What have we to gain by perpetuating the schism that we owe to the perversity of George the Third and the determination of his pig-headed advisers "to put the thing through" and chastise the insolence of these revolted colonists by "fighting to a finish"? As an integral part of the English-speaking federation, we should continue to enjoy not only undisturbed, but with enhanced prestige, our pride of place, while if we remain outside, nursing our Imperial insularity on monarchical lines, we are doomed to play second fiddle for the rest of our existence. Why not finally recognize the truth and act upon it? What sacrifices are there which can be regarded as too great to achieve the realization of the ideal of the unity of the English-speaking race?

Consider for a moment what at present is the distribution of the surface of this planet among the various races of mankind. Instead of counting Britain and the United States as two separate and rival States, let us pool the resources of the Empire and the Republic and regard them with all their fleets, armies, and industrial resources as a political, or, if you like, an Imperial unit.

The English-speaking States, with a population of 121,000,000 self-governing white citizens, govern 353.- 000,000 of Asiatics and Africans. Under their allied flags labor one-third of the human race.

The sea, which covers three-fourths of the surface

World Conquerors

of the planet, is their domain. Excepting on the Euxine and the Caspian, no ship dare plough the salt seas in Eastern or Western hemisphere if they choose to forbid it. They are supreme custodians of the waterways of the world, capable by their fiat of blockading into submission any European State contemplating an appeal to the arbitrament of war.

Of the dry land, they have occupied and are ruling all the richest territories in three continents. With the exception of Siberia they have seized all the best goldmines of the world. There is hardly a region where white men can breed and live and thrive that they have not appropriated. They have picked out the eyes of every continent. They reign in the land of the Pharaohs, they have conquered the Empire of Aurungzebe, and have seized with imperious hand the dominions of Spain. They have despoiled the Portuguese, the French, and the Dutch, and have left to the German and the Italian nothing but the scraps and knucklebones of a colonial dominion.

The net result works out as follows : —

Country.

Square Miles.

Population.

White.

Colored.

The United States

The British Empire....

3,754,000 11,894,000

Total

15,648,000

121,000,000

353,000,000

Warned Off

The rest of the world cuts but a poor figure compared with the possessions of the Enghsh-speaking aliies.

Country.

Square

Miles.

Population.

White.

Colored.

Russia

121,000,000

15,000.000

39,000,000

55,000,000

134,000,000

12,000,000

China

Latin America

France

Germany

All others

129,000,000

The Hon's share of the world is ours, not only in bulk, but in tid-bits also. The light land of the Sahara is not worth a centime an acre. The vast area of German South Africa would hardly provide a livelihood for the population of a middle-sized German village. With the exception of the Rhine, the Danube, the Amoor, the Volga, the Platte and the Amazon, nearly all the great navigable rivers of the world enter the sea under the Union Jack or the Stars and Stripes. The valley of the Yang-tse-Kiang is earmarked as the sphere of our influence. The whole of the North American Continent, from the North Pole to the frontier of Mexico, is within the ring fence of the English-speaking race, and from the whole of Central and Southern America all .trespassers have been emphatically warned ofif by the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine.

Drunkards and Pharisees

Population should be weighed as well as counted. In a census return a Hottentot counts for as much as a Cecil Rhodes ; a mean white on a southern swamp is the census equivalent for Mr. J. P. Morgan or Mr. Edison.

A nation which has no illiterates can hardly be counted off against the Russians, only three per cent, of whom can read or write. Excluding France and Germany and the highly civilized group of small states, Scandinavian, Dutch and Swiss, the English-speaking world comes out easily on top, no matter what test of civilization is employed.

We have more schools to the square mile, more colleges to the county, more universities to the State than any of the others. We print more books, read more newspapers, run more libraries. We have more churches per hundred thousand of the population, and attend them better. Our death rate is diminishing even more rapidly than our birth rate, our pauperism is decreasing, our criminal statistics are reassuring. Only in one respect do we fall below the average. We are the most drunken race in the whole world — the most drunken and in both our branches the most Pharisaical.

We are as piratical as the worst of our neighbors, but we alone make broad our phylacteries while we are plundering, and pray while we prey. In all the material tests of advancing civilization, railways, steamships, telephones, telegraphs, electric trolleys, sanitary appliances, and the like, we beat the world.

If from a comparison between the English-speaking

The Weight of Numbers

duality and the rest of the planet we pass to a comparison between the two English-speaking races, some curious results come out. The United States, which has shot ahead of us in population, has comparatively only a small area. The total superficial area of the United States is only 3,603,844 square miles on the mainland. The total area of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands will not add more than 100,000 square miles to that total.

But the British Empire has 3,456,383 square miles in Canada, 3,076,763 in Australia, and 1,808,258 in India. The vast expanses of Canada and Australia are but sparsely peopled ; there is elbow room in both for a greater population than that which the United States carries to-day.

The following comparison of populations is interesting, excluding colored persons : —

1901 igoo

United States (not >

England 31,231,664 including those I 57,422,000

below) )

New Zealand 773. 440 Connecticut 908,355

South Africa and / 1,000,000 t^t u 1 Miscellaneous.. \ (estimated) Nebraska 1,068,539

These figures do not pretend to be exact. No one really knows how many white citizens of the British Empire are scattered over the myriad-peopled regions 10

Comparative Wealth where we maintain the Roman peace, how many are on the high seas, and how many are doing sentry go all round the world. A million is probably not an unfair estimate. The comparison is interesting, and may be suggestive to some readers who have never quite realized that there are single states in the American Union with a population greater than that of the whole Dominion of Canada or the kingdom of Scotland.

When the comparison is made between finance, railways and shipping, and there is no distinction made between colored and white men, the British Empire, with its multitudinous host of dark-skinned races, is easily preponderant.

The comparison works out somewhat as follows : —

Country.

Area.

Revenue.

Railways

Shipping.

Tons.

Exports

and Imports.

United Kingdom

Colonies and Depen-

11,429,000

Millions. 120

no

S4,ooo

Millions. 9

I

Millions. 81S

TOTAL..

United States

11,550,000 3,700,000

75,659 184,278

1,016 380

Grand Total

15,250,000

1.396

Mr. Chauncey McGovern contributed to Pearson's Magacinc last October a curious comparison between the English-speaking States and Russia, France, and Spain, from which I extract the following Table : —

The English-Speaking United States of the World. Russia, France and Spain.

Area

Population

Revenue

National Pebts.

Railways

Exports

Merchant Ships.

Naval Guns. . . .

15,636,000 square miles.

473,500,000

;C37g,8oo,ooo u

A Combination

A more detailed comparison between the English-speaking States and France, Russia, and Germany, was made by Sir Richard Temple in September, 1899. I quote his figures as they stand without attempting to bring them up to date : —

English-Speaking.

Pop7ilatton.

Russia, Germany and Spain.

15} millions square miles.

A reel.

I ii\ millions square miles.

Coast Line.

62,000 miles and 19 first-rate harbors. | 17,000 miles and 5 harbors.

Railways.

Annual Trade.

English-Speaking.

Russia, Germany and France.

Shifiping.

Fisheries.

Iron Ore.

Sh ipping. 3,750,000 ions.

Fisheries.

Iroti Ore.

Revenue.

320,000.

Coal Output.

;(J377,ooo,ooo.

Armies.

100,000.

Coal Output.

;C405,ooo,ooo, Armies.

405,000,000.

Navies. —

7.000,000.

ships.

This represents a greater factor of organized force than has ever before been at the disposal of a single race.

The question arises whether this gigantic aggregate can be pooled. We live in the day of combinations. Is there no Morgan who will undertake to bring about the greatest combination of all — a combination of the whole English-speaking race?

The same motive which has led to the building up of the Trust in the industrial world, may bring about this great combination in the world of politics. It is not a sentimental craze. The question is prompted bv the most solid of material considerations. Why should we not combine? We should be stronger as against outside attack, and what is of far greater importance,

\2

A Plea for Unity

there would be much less danger of the fierce industrial rivalry that is to come leading to international strain and war.

New York competes with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania with Illinois, but no matter how severe may be the competition, its stress never strains the federal tie. States in a federal Union are as free to compete with each other as are towns in an English county, but being united in one organic whole the war of trade never endangers the public peace. Why should we not aim at the same goal in international affairs? If the English-speaking world were unified even to the e:?- tent of having a central court for the settlement of all Anglo-American controversies, our respective manufacturers would be free to compete without any risk of their trade rivalry endangering good relations between the Empire and the Republic. And that would be again worth making no small sacrifice in order to secure.

The tendency of the last half century has been all in favor of the unification of peoples who speak the same language. It is not likely to slacken in the new century. The Nineteenth Century unified Germany and Italy. Will the Twentieth Century unify the English-speaking race ?

It is a momentous question. The remembrance of the z'ia dolorosa of blood and tears by which the German race attained to unity may well deter the timid from suggesting that the English-speaking world should essay to reach the same goal. But the story of how the Germans realized their national unity is full of suggestion for us, both for encouragement and for warning. For the German race a hundred years

J3

The Rise of Germany

since was very much like the EngHsh-speaking race to-day. Austria then was what Great Britain is now.* She had the prestige of antiquity, the Imperial aureole was round her brow, she reigned over many races of various tongues, and she was as proud as Lucifer. Over against her were the Prussians — the Americans of their time.

They were young and enterprising ; the Hohenzollems were but upstart parvenus besides the Hapsburgs, but they had the genius for organization, the instinct for education, and a passionate patriotism. Between these two lay the minor German States, who corresponded not inaptly to the various English-speaking colonies which look to Britain as their natural head, very much as the South German States regarded Austria, who presided over the Bund, as the pivot of the German political system. In the presence of national rivalries so intense, and political barriers so innumer-

» When I was revising' the proofs of this chapter, I was considerably surprised to find that the London correspondent of the Novove Vretuya in October last had already called attention to the analojry between Great Britain and Austria. He pushed the parallel still further home. He declared that the true parallel of the present situation must be sought not in the relations that existed at the besfinning of the nineteenth century between Prussia and Austria, but rather in those which existed at present between the German Empire and Austria, for, in his opinion, the Tjnited States have already established over Great Britain the same kind of protectorate as the German Empire has established over the Austrian member of the Triple Alliance. He says:

"Everything proves that Great Britain is now practically dependent upon the United States, and for all international intents and purposes may be considered to be under an American protectorate.

"Just as Germany has used Austria for her own purposes, while gfuarding her from external and internal dangers, so does America take advantage of British needs and weakness, caring for England only in so far as self-interest prompts it. The United States has but ]ust entered upon the policy of exploiting the protected kingdom. . . .

" The British have lost all pride in their relation to the United States. They admit that they cannot successfully resist the republic. They no longer trust to their strength, but place their reliance on the racial, literary and social ties which at^tract the Americans to England. In this surrender to the Americans there is a sentimental motive as well as a practical one. Losing her maritime, commercial, and even financial primacy, England can bear with more resignation the passing of this primacy to a nation akin to her in language, civilization, and even blood."

English-Speaking Unity

able, the idea of German unity seemed an idler dream in 1801 than the idea of English-speaking unity seems in 1901.

We are all familiar with the consequence of allowing the German race to persist in its dual organization. As Bismarck wrote in 1856: "For a thousand years, ever since the reign of Charles V., German Dualism has regularly resettled its mutual relations once a century by a thorough-going internal war, and in this century also that will prove to be the only feasible expedient for arranging matters satisfactorily."*

Ten years later Bismarck, at Sadowa, settled matters to his satisfaction at least, but to this day one menace to the peace of central Europe arises from the fact that some eight million Germans were left outside the national fold.

Between the two sections of the English-speaking race there has been one war a century so far. There is too much reason to fear that the average will be kept up, unless in some way or other the mischievous work of George III. can be undone. It is, of course, manifestly impossible, even if it were desirable, for the Americans to come back within the pale of the British Empire. But if that is impossible, there remains the other alternative. Why should not we of the older stock propose to make amends for the folly of our ancestors by recognizing that the hegemony of the race has passed from Westminster to Washington, and proposing to federate the Empire and the Republic on whatever terms may be arrived at, after discussion, as a possible basis for the reunion of our race.

• "Our Chancellor." Busch, vol. i., p. 323.

J5

Words of Wisdom

The suggestion will be derided as a dream. But to quote the familiar saying of Russell Lowell, "It is none the worse for that; most of the best things we now possess began by being dreams."

Mr. Balfour, six years ago, declared "that the idea of

war with the United States of America carries with it

something of the unnatural horror of civil war."

Since then many things have happened to strengthen

that sentiment. But even then he could use these

eloquent w^ords : —

" I feel, so far as I can speak for my countrymen, that our pride in the race to which we belong is a pride which includes every English-speaking community in the world. We have a domestic patriotism, as Scotchmen or Englishmen or as Irishmen, or what you will, we have an Imperial patriotism as citizens of the British Empire ; but surely, in addition to that, we have also an Anglo-Saxon patriotism which embraces within its ample folds the whole of that great race which has done so much in every branch of human effort, and in that branch of human effort which has produced free institutions and free communities."

And he added some words of wisdom with which I

will close this chapter : —

" We may be taxed with being idealists and dreamers in this matter. I would rather be an idealist and a dreamer, and I look forward with confidence to the time when our ideals will have become real and our dreams will be embodied in actual political fact. For, after all, circumstances will tend in that direction in which we look."

In a subsequent chapter, I attempt to describe some

of these circumstances which already enable us to

foresee the trend of the Twentieth Century r^—

'Where is a Briton's Fatherland ? A Briton's Fatherland is there.

Will no one tell me of that land ? Our grlorious An^rlo-Saxon race

'Tis where one meets with English Shall ever till earth's highest place,

folk. The sun shall never more go down

And hears the tongue that Shake- On English temple, tower and town ;

speare spoke; And wander where a Briton will.

Where songs of Burns are in the air, His Fatherland shall hold him still."

\6

Chapter Second The Basis for Rewnion

Let it be admitted, if only for the sake of our argument, that the establishment of English-speaking unity is a matter to be desired in the interest alike of the peace of the world and the liberties of mankind. The question next arises, how can this unity most easily and effectually be brought about? In attempting to answer this question, I disclaim in advance any accusation that I am imperilling the end in view by an inconsiderate precipitance in pressing for the adoption of measures that promise to lead in that direction.

I only seek to discuss tendencies, to estimate forces, and to forecast the probable course of the natural evolution of the existing factors in the Empire and the Republic, and in the nations on their frontiers. In presence of a problem so immense, fraught with consequences so momentovis for the weal or woe of mankind, it would be presumption to attempt to proclaim solutions before the governing factors have been clearly discerned.

J7

Anglo or American

Nevertheless, it may not be impossible for even the cursory observer to see the trend of events, if he keeps his attention fixed upon the salient features of the situation. If the two English-speaking States are to come together, it is obvious that there must be some approximation towards a system which may be accepted by all the world-scattered communities of English-speaking men.

This being admitted, the question immediately arises as to whether the Empire will approximate to the Republic, or the Republic to the Empire. Are we to Americanize our institutions, or may we expect to see the Americans Anglicizing their Constitution? Or may we anticipate that the future normal system of polity for the English-speaking world will be arrived at by such an exact balance between the English and American elements, that the product will be strictly Anglo-American, and not more American than it is Anglo?

It is not very difficult to answer theee questions. In the first place, what is the fundamental difference between the British and American Constitutions? That which differentiates them much more than the fact that the head of one is hereditary and of the other elective, is the fact that we have no written Constitution of any kind, whereas the American Constitution is the best known type of a written Constitution in existence.

The Constitution of the reunited English-speaking race must of necessity be written. Not even the most uncompromising Britisher would venture to sug-

The New Constitution

gest that mankind will ever again attempt to repeat the experiment which has worked for so long with such miraculous success in Great Britain. If we seek for confirmation of this, we have only to turn to the recent history of our greatest colonies. When the Dominion of Canada was constituted, the federation was embodied in a written Constitution.

Last year the same thing occurred in the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. If Mr. Gladstone had succeeded in carrying his Home Rule Bill, that measure would have been the written Constitution or fundamental Charter of the new Government of Ireland. The adoption of some sort of written Constitution is therefore inevitable, and by its adoption the fundamental feature of the Re-united States would become American, not British.

After the difference of written and unwritten Constitutions, the Empire and the Republic differ most visibly in the way in which they appoint their heads. The Americans elect their President for four years. The British crown for life the eldest son of the deceased sovereign.

The comparative advantages of a Constitutional Monarchy and of a democratic Republic need not be discussed here. The Americans themselves might be the first to object to the disappearance of the Monarchy. The Crown might remain as a picturesque historical symbol, as a distinctively British institution as local as, although much more ornamental than, the London fog. But not even the most perfervid Royalist in his wildest dreams can conceive the possi-

i9

An American Mould

bility of the Americans ever consenting to become the loyal subjects of a descendant of George III. Even if they developed a taste for monarchy, they would make it the first condition of their sovereign that he sliould be a thorough American.