MORAL AND SOCIAL TASKS OF WORLD POLITICS 309
One cannot deny that these questions weigh heavily and earnestly at least on those who, even in politics, will not forget that they are Christians. It was a thrilling indication of the difficulty of this problem that one of the most distinguished and celebrated of our economists, Professor Dr. Adolph Wagner, of Berlin, declared to the congress that he was compelled to decline to report on the subject, because in considering the lecture a strong doubt had possessed him whether our world-policy can be really justified ; whether it can be reconciled with the Christian point of view. From the standpoint of self-preservation of the nation it may be necessary ; but whether this standpoint can be justified from the general human point of view seemed to him not clear. We base the necessity of imperialism, of the "greater Germany," upon our increase of population; we need more bread, more work, and more land for the 800,000 human beings who are annually added to the number of our people. But is this increase of population something morally wholesome ? Have we, on the whole, a right in the sight of humanity to defend the indispensable necessity of our increase ?
These skeptical questions of one of the first of our economic professors indicate sufficiently the difficulties which this problem, so debated, presents to our ethical theorists. It is to be regretted that an entirely clear and decisive answer appears not to have been given to these doubts at the congress. According to my view, one should make substantially this statement : A people which surrenders the belief that its own existence has a signifi- cance for humanity in general thereby gives up all claim to a reason for being. It is the characteristic nucleus of the love of fatherland, of patriotism, of national feeling, or, as we may designate this fundamental political feeling of every sound, pro- gressive people, it is faith in itself, the consciousness that it has a value, an importance in relation to mankind. This faith can- not be "proved," as if it were some kind of a theoretical prin- ciple ; much nearer accuracy would it be to call it an axiom, or better still, in the Kantian phrase, a moral postulate, a funda- mental demand of the spirit, which is as really innate in men as nationality, in which it is manifested. To yield this faith would
