The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-20
The Communist International, The War
Danger and the Role Of
American Imperialism

if we are to make any serious effort
to estimate our duties in the future
where again we will be called upon
to make right and proper tactics
against American and all other i'm
perialisms.
/ Before l close let ds take another
last look at that Imperialism which
must be to us the greatest enemy, the
imperialism of the United States of
America. There were certain phases
of difference in the historical de-
velopment of American imperialism
which make it not so easy to under
stand. Not with the dogmatic phrases
of the Social Democratic parties can
anyone understand American i'm
perialism, not by mechanical applica-
tion of the stock phrases of the
European continent. Marx and
Engels, and Lenin in recent times,
have made exhaustive studies of
American early history. But as Lenin
has pointed out, the period of
American imperialism proper began,
roughly speaking with the Spanish
American war of 1898. Before that
American Imperialism was not a
well-defined, clear development. The
imperiaist period in the modern
! sense-not in the sense which would
/ be used by liberal pacifists in
description of the early history of
wars against, Mexico, etc.,-but in
the modern sense-American i'm
perialism began with the Spanish
war Since that time we see a rapid
series of aggressions of American
military forces against Latin Ameri-
ca, against the Philippines, etc. We
find that a whole series of countries
extending from the Southern tip of
South America to the northern wilds
Of Canada passes more or less under
the domination of American finance
capital with it's central location of
New York City. To a more definite
degree, there are something like eight
Latin American republics which can
be said to be ruled politically directly
by the United States government.
When French paper recently at
tackled the United States government
for its policy in Latin American a
flunkey in the person of the Cuban
ambassador came out and said there
was no American Imperialism. That
Cuban ambassador was really a Wall
Street ambassador. This develop
ment of American imperialism be-
tween the Spanish-American war and
the World War, however, was a
relatively mild development. Before
the World War America had only
foreign investments to the extent of
two and one half billion dollars,
which are comparatively small fig
ures. The amount of capital invested
by European powers in the United
States was then twice as large, lie.
S5,000,000,0 That was before the
World War and we find that by the
end Of the World War the United
States had become no longer debtor
nation but very aggressive investor
of capital abroad and an imperialist
power in the most complete sense.
In 1923 five hundred million dollars
were invested abroad during the year.
In 1924 that had increased three
fold, in 1926 and in 1925 it averaged
about two billion dollars per year in
vested abroad. Thirteen billion dol
lars are the total amount now stand
ing as investments abroad of private
capital by American capitalists. These
investments abroad are rapidly ris-
ing; the ratio increasing rapidly.
| With every dollar goes n potential
bayonet The Federal Reserve Bank
is acting as the agency, through which
there is. coordination of this pro-
gressive advance. Since 1922 the
State Department in Washington had
exercised control over these invest
ments. In many instances the naked
manner in which this is exercised
comes to light. For instance, the cof-
fee planters of Brazil were purposeIy
bankrupted through the central policy
of American finance capital finding
expression through the State Depart
ment. The State Department acted
directly to help the Firestone Rubber
Company to get hold for the first
time for American capital on the
continent of Africa, and American
finance capital, acting through the
State Department, denied at one time
the right of the French bourgeoisie
to make government loans after a
certain degree of ABSORPTION had taken
place.
ITO BE G-ntinucd)