The Conquest of America - A Romance of Disaster and Victory by Cleveland Moffett
page 10 of 255 (03%)
page 10 of 255 (03%)
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seriously by the leaders and thinking men of the more important peoples,
and I fear that for one reason or another neither the classes nor the masses have much admiration for the idea or would be willing to do their share to bring it about. Here is the crux of the question, the earth has so much surface and to-day this is divided up in a certain way by international frontiers. Yesterday it was divided up in a different way. To-morrow it will again be divided up in a new way, unless some world federation steps in and says: "Stop! There are to be no more wars. The present frontiers of the existing fifty-three nations are to be considered as righteously and permanently established. After this no act of violence shall change them." Think what that would mean! It would mean that nations like Russia, Great Britain and the United States, which happened to possess vast dominions when this world federation peace plan was adopted would continue to possess vast dominions, while other nations like Italy, Greece, Turkey, Holland, Sweden, France, Spain (all great empires once), Germany and Japan, whose present share of the earth's surface might be only one-tenth or one-fiftieth or one-five-hundredth as great as Russia's share or Great Britain's share, would be expected to remain content with that small portion. Impossible! These less fortunate, but not less aspiring nations would never agree to such a policy of national stagnation, to such a stifling of their legitimate longings for a "greater place in the sun." They would point to the pages of history and show how small nations have become great and how empires have fallen. What was the mighty United States of America but yesterday? A handful of feeble colonies far weaker than the |
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