308 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
Germany into a world-power ? Naturally these questions at the Evangelical Social Congress were answered from a German standpoint and with a view to German relations. But the prob- lems which are involved are of so general a nature that every other nation whose politics have been carried beyond the nat- ural boundaries must feel their weight.
We understand by the phrase " development into a world- power" the compulsion which a nation feels to unfold its power beyond its own limits, because its interests are no longer con- fined to its own territory. It is clear that this pressure has for its immediate occasion an economic demand protection of its own capital investments abroad, protection of its citizens who live abroad, the attainment of foreign markets for home indus- tries, and of land on which our own capital can find employment under the protection of our own state power. Economic expan- sion of modern capitalism drives the peoples also to political expansion, to meddling with the internal affairs of foreign peoples ; for example, the action which at this writing (June, 1900) involves China; to war with other peoples in respect to land, as the Spanish-American war about Cuba, England's con- test against the Boers in South Africa ; or the conquest of ter- ritory in which hitherto uncivilized peoples had control, as the war of the United States against the Philippines, Germany's colonization of Cameroon, East Africa, etc. Such contests for colonies and such interference in the affairs of foreign states cannot occur, as matters stand, without the development of power and force ; and the use of force always implies violation of rights, at least of feelings of justice, which the governed cherish. Here arises the problem which found expression in the discussion of the Evangelical Social Congress. Can this policy be ethically justified ? Can we reconcile with morality and with the principles of Christianity the conduct of a nation when it subdues another in order to obtain for itself a better place ? Or, if political expansion is a necessary consequence of our pres- ent economic conditions, is there another kind of world-policy which appears to be in closer harmony with the moral principles of Christianity than that which expansion actually requires ?
