The Libertarian Review July 1978 - Libertarianism.org

on civilians. Some of the imperialists arenot ready to go quite so fast as yet. Theyhave remonstrated against the militarydoctrine, but that only proves that themilitary men see the point at issue betterthan the others do. The question of imperialism'then, is the question whetherwe are going to give the lie to the originof our own national existence by establishinga colonial system of the oldSpanish type, even if we have to sacrificeour existing civil and political system todo it.Everywhere you go on the continentof Europe at this hour you see the conflictbetween militarism and industrialism.You see the expansion of industrialpower pushed forward by the energy,hope, and thrift of men, and you see thedevelopment arrested, diverted, crippled,and defeated by measures whichare dictated by military considerations.It is militarism which is eating up all theproducts of science and art, defeatingthe energy of the population, andwasting its savings. It is militarismwhich forbids the people to give their attentionto the problems of their ownwelfare and to give their strength to theeducation and comfort of their children.It is militarism which is combattingthe grand efforts of science and artto ameliorate the struggle for existence.Now what will hasten the day whenour present advantages will wear outand when we shall come down to theconditions of the older and denselypopulated nations? The answer is: war,debt, taxation, diplomacy, a grand governmentalsystem, pomp, glory, a bigarmy and navy, lavish expenditures,political jobbery-in a word, imperialism.In the old days, the democraticmasses of this country, who knew littleabout our modern doctrines of socialphilosophy, had a sound instinct onthese matters, and it is no small groundof political disquietude to see it decline.They resisted every appeal to their vanityin the way of pomp and glory, whichthey knew must be paid for. Theydreaded a public debt and a standingarmy.The great foe of democracy now andin the near future is plutocracy. Everyyear that passes brings out this antagonismmore distinctly. It is to be thesocial war of the twentieth century. Inthat war, militarism, expansion, andimperialism will all favor plutocracy.In the first place, war and expansionwill favor jobbery, both in the dependenciesand at home. In the secondplace, they will take away the attentionof the people from what the plutocratsare doing. In the third place, they willcause large expenditures of the people'smoney, the return for which will not gointo the treasury, but into the hands of afew schemers. In the fourth place, theywill call for a large public debt andtaxes, and these things especially tend tomake men unequal, because any socialburdens bear more heavily on the weakthan on the strong, and so make theweak weaker and the strong stronger.Therefore, expansion and imperialismare a grand onslaught on democracy.The people who have led us on to shutourselves in [through protectionism],and now want us to break out [throughimperialism], warn us against the terrorsof "isolation." Our ancestors allcame here to isolate themselves from thesocial burdens and inherited errors ofthe old world. When the others are allover their ears in trouble, who wouldnot be isolated in freedom from care?When the others are crushed under theburden of militarism, who would not beisolated in peace and industry? Whenthe others are all struggling under debtand taxes, who would not be isolated inthe enjoyment of his own earnings forthe benefit of his own family? When therest are all in a quiver of anxiety, lest ata day's notice they may be involved in asocial cataclysm, who would not beisolated out of reach of the disaster?What we are doing is that we are abandoningthis blessed isolation to run aftera share in the trouble.Americans [still] cannot assure life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness toNegroes inside of the United States.When the Negro postmaster's house wasset on fire in the night in South Carolina,and not only he, but his wife andchildren were murdered as they cameout, and when, moreover, this incidentpassed without legal investigation orpunishment, it was a bad omen for theextension of liberty, etc., to Mayas andTagals by simply setting over them theAmerican flag. Upon a little reflectionwe find that our hands are quite full athome of problems by the solution ofwhich the peace and happiness of theAmerican people could be greatly increased.And yet this scheme of a republicwhich our fathers formed was a gloriousdream which demands more than aword of respect and affection before itpasses away. Their idea was that theywould never allow any of the social andpolitical abuses of the old world to growup here. There should be no manors, nobarons, no ranks, no prelates, no idleclasses, no paupers, no disinherited onesexcept the vicious. There would be nogrand diplomacy, because they intendedto mind their own business andnot be involved in any of the intrigues towhich European statesmen were accustomed.There was to be no balanceof power and no "reason of state" to costthe life and happiness of citizens.Our fathers would have an economicalgovernment, even if grand peoplecalled it a parsimonious one, and taxesshould be no greater than were absolutelynecessary to pay for such agovernment. The citizen here wouldnever be forced to leave his family or togive his sons to shed blood for glory andto leave widows and orphans in miseryfor nothing. Justice and law were toreign in the midst of simplicity, and agovernment which had little to do wasto offer little field for ambition.It is by virtue of this conception of acommonwealth that the United Stateshas stood for something unique andgrand in the history of mankind andthat its people have been happy. It is byvirtue of these ideals that we have been"isolated" - isolated in a position whichthe other nations of the earth have observedin silent envy.And yet there are people who areboasting of their patriotism, becausethey say that we have taken our placenow amongst the nations of the earth byvirtue of this war. My patriotism is ofthe kind which is outraged by the notionthat the United States never was a greatnation until in a petty three months'campaign it knocked to pieces a poor,decrepit, bankrupt old state like Spain.To hold such an opinion as that is toabandon all American standards, to putto shame and scorn all that our ancestorstried to build up here, and to goover to the standards of which Spain is arepresentative.•14Libertarian Review