A New Imperialism

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NEW IMPERIALISM. BY DR. J. M. TANNER. In recent years the United States has come into possession of foreign territories whose administration is making a great change in our relationship with foreign countries. This territorial expan- sion has been styled "Imperialism," as though it might give rise to- an empire. To it there has risen the objection that this territo- rial aggrandizement means the enlargement of the powers of our Executive Department. It is feared by some that the continuation of such a policy will, in the near future, put in the hands of the president of the United States, a power in excess of that wielded by any monarch in Europe. Every thoughtful reader must have observed that along with the increase of territorial expansion there has come a corresponding increase of power to the chief executive of our nation; his power has grown apace with our policy of expansion; but along with this imperialism, so called, there is- another imperialism, another power to be exercised by the Ameri- can nation, that will be more potential even than the increased power of its great executive. It is commercial imperialism. Until about ten years ago, we were a debtor nation. There was a constant flow of gold from the United States to London to meet there our annual payments of interest. We needed more money than we had to develop the manufacturing industries of the East, and the possibilities of a great empire in the West. Our increase in wealth has in recent years changed us from a debtor to a creditor nation. We are not sending interest abroad as we did. We have what money we need at home, and more than that, we have plenty to spare, and so we can lend money to the Japan- ese and English. This is the reason why we have not in the last

222 IMPROVEMENT ERA. few years felt money stringencies as we felt them before. Men will not be content to lock up their money in the vaults. What is true of the East with respect to Europe, is true in the West with respect to the East. The West now has money of its own. Products of its farms and mines have been so great that its large indebtedness has been almost liquidated. Financial troubles will not come to us in the future as they have come to us in the past; they will come dressed in new garbs, in unexpected ways. Financiers of the United States now mean to conquer resources of the world jist as they have conquered resources of the West. Commercial expansion is the watchword of the hour. We have our hold upon South America, upon Asia, and upon Africa. We shall become a world power more by the enlargement of our for- eign commercial interests than by our political control. As an illustration of what is taking place, recent announcements that cer- tain great financiers of the United States had bought enormous concessions from the king and Parliament of Belgium, is a good example. King Leopold and his associates have amassed enor- mous fortunes from the rubber trade of the Congo Free State. Leopold is perhaps one of the richest men, if not the richest man, in Europe. His wealth is computed at something like $100,000,000. The increase in the demand for rubber has been rapid in recent years. In 1869, five years after the Congo Free State was turned over to Belgium, the output of rubber in that part of Africa was forty-seven tons. In 1905, the annual output was increased to four thousand, eight hundred and sixty tons, valued at over $8,000,000, which, however, is only nine and a half per cent of the world's product. It is estimated that the present year's world product of crude rubber will ream' $90,000,000. The rubber industry has thus become one of the world's great resources for wealth. Five years ago, crude rubber sold at 87Vz cents a pound; it is now quoted at $1.22/^ a pound. The demand for it is so great, that it sells in the market as readily as gold or silver bullion. American companies are organized for the production of rub- ber from the Guayuli plant which grows in Mexico. In Africa it grows in a vine. At the proper season of the year, the vine is cut

A NEW IMPERIALISM. 223 the rubber accumulates in a ball, and is easily removed. This gives the literal meaning to the expression "picking money from vines." The rubber industry of Central Africa is doubtless in its infancy. Now that it is to be developed by American financiers, Africa will have a new meaning to the United States. We have no political interests there; but our commercial interests will make Africa a bone of contention in the United States, just as it is in Europe. The Guggenheims are to begin operations. These copper kings of the West have secured great copper-mining con- cessions. All this means new railroads, new steam boats, along the Congo. Central Africa abounds in forests of hard wood whose importa- tions to this country are already beginning. The great tablelands of the Dark Continent are rich in coal and iron products, more valuable than gold and silver. It is said by those acquainted with the soil and climate of the country that the tablelands of Central Africa are as desirable as the rich valleys of the Mississippi. The present turn in the affairs of the Congo Free State has doubtless been brought about by the criticism which has been going on in England, in recent years, against the treatment which the natives have received from the administration of the Belgians. The Belgians have been strong in their denial of the accusations made by the English. They accuse the English of having itching fingers, and of having a desire to wrest from the Belgians the enormous resources of wealth which recent years have revealed in the Congo Free State. England, of late, has been pressing the question, and it looks as though there might be some action taken with a view of replacing the Belgian government in the heart of Africa by some other government. It may be that the Belgians, feeling resentful towards the English, and being determined that the English should not benefit by Belgian losses, in the event that the powers should take the Congo Free State away from the Bel- gians, concluded to divest themselves of their valuable possessions by turning them over in concessions granted to financiers of the United States. It will be remembered that the United States did not take part in the Berlin Conference of 1884, by which the powers dis- posed of the Congo by turning it over to Belgium. We are now