Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1915-02-05
INPERIAL AMBITIoNs AID
BY Prof Robert Ellis Thompson
in The Irish World.

been much neglected in the discus
sions OF its causes and its conse-
quences. / mean the disease of I'M
perialism, which has affected the
minds of almost all modern cOun-
tries, and which our own has not
escaped. This is closely connected
with that craving for commercial
domination. There are, in fact, two
/ imperialisms, the commercial and
the political The one seeks the
control OF the worlds trade, and the
other political domination over the
worlds nationalities.
The most perfect expression Of
( this double ambition in modern
times is the British Empire. On the
one hand it seeks to make Great
Britain ''the workshop of the world,
I to which all other countries shall
! send their raw materials, and from
which they shall take in return the
manufactures they need, both trans
actions being conducted with the
employment Of British shipping.
1t was about the close of the sew
enteenth century that this ideal
! dawned upon the official intellects of
/ the British Government. What came
( to be called "our colonial system"
/ WAS us pIdCLlCdl CAUItoSiOug duQ re-
NAMED so until well into the nine
/ teenth century The home govern
ment enacted the Tariffs for the
whole empire, with the object Of
: confining the trade Of the colonies
entirely to Great Britain. Colonial
goods camc into British ports either
free or under much lower duties
than from other countries, and Brit
ish goods went free into the col
onies.
Besides this, care was taken to
/ prevent the colonies from making
anything the mother country"
chose to send them Americans
might make pig-iron for themselves.
! but not steel. They might not i'm
port blooded sheep lest this inter
! fere with the British wool-grower.
II they made such things as hats for
| themselves, these might not be sent
| from one colony to another, but must
/ be consumed in that which produced
/ thom. The War for independence
! was largely a revolt against this at
/ tempt to throttle American develop
ment in the interests of British
/ trade, as was the contemporary re-
volt Of the Volunteers in Ireland
! These broke up the empire as the
unit which British statesmanship
had created, both industlially and
politically.
But the infamous Union Of 1901,
the seizure Of Dutch colonies during
the Napoleonic Wars, and the rise of
other British colonies enabled its
reconstruction on it's former lines,
and with much the same restrictions
But again the causes which had rent
America away from British rule be-
gan to work in the new colonies.
The sense of natural right to self
government set the colonies into
fermcnt; and to prevent fresh wars
for independence Great Britain con-
ceded TO them the control of their
own commercial relations, and also
the direction OF their political life
subject to an appeal to the Privy
Council in London.
It was predicted that the colonies
never would cease to favor British
imports to the exclusion Of those Of
other countries, nor would seek es-
! tablish industries of their own to
the disadvantage of those of Great
Britain. Those hopes have been
badly disappointed. Some small
measure Of preference for British
goods is found in their Tariffs but
their ports are open to all the world,
and the all are bent on becoming
self-sufiicient countries in the supply
Of their people from their own work
shops and factories
This has obliged Great Britain to
adopt third form Of empire. Be-
sides her self-goyerning colonies she
has extensive dependencies, whose
fiscal and Industrial policy she can
dictate to her own advantage. India,
Burmah, Egypt, the West Indies,
hundreds Of islands in the Pacific
and elsewhere, and above all Ireland
are tied to her selfish dictation, are
prevented from doing anything to
uevelop their own industries at the
( expense Of hers, and are obliged to
clothe their millions from her looms,
to equip their workers and their
railroads from her foundries, and to
live on the low, famine-provol1ing
level Of a merely agricultural exist
ence. Their native manufactures Of
clothing have been obliterated by her
shoddy fabrics; and as one English
statesman said of the American col
onies: "They may not even make a
hobnail for themselves" If they try
to do it., British competition and
command Of capital is too much for
them.
Strangely enough the spectacle
; has exercised q fascination over
other countries which might have
been expected to cherish higher
ideas OF their national possibilities
and their moral obligations. Every
Naboths vineyard, whose owners
were not strong enough to shut out
the Ahabs in high places, has been
seized as an additional source OF
wealth and glory a new morality
has grown up, which talks of the
} reasonable expectations" Of every
country to lay hold of something not
its own, but which it Graves. France,
Germany, Russia, Austria, italy
Holland, Belgium, America, Japan,
all but the three Scandinavian coun-
/ tries, have been bitten by this new
DO. 4t..I