AMERICAN DOMINATION

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1919, Page 6

AMERICAN DOMINATION

Has civilisation ever- given a nation so great a chance as the United States possesses to-day ? This question is raised Iby a passing remark by the American economist, Mr. F. A. Vanderlip, who points out that " there have been nations that were the [world's] financial reservoirs, but they were not also the reservoirs of raw material." Such a nation is Britain, who has "little raw material" save coal and iron, and who has lived by importing raw material and by exporting manufactures plus some coal, which latter item of export is now threatened by colliery strikes and American competition. Despite their dependence for raw material on other countries, the wonderful British islands have achieved an astonishing degree of world-domination. But what of America? " Here we are," writes Mr. Vanderlip, " the reservoir of the world's capital; and at the same time the reservoir, of raw materials." Dependent on none, the self-contained United States can, he demonstrates, supply all. But to be the world's dominating nation requires more than raw material. It requires' nationhood. At present Britain's national cohesion is being, tested in the furnace fires of internal strife, and is it likely that America will for ever escape? Can any nation hope to avoid that purifying ordeal, which, when it comes, will be conditioned less by reserves of raw materials than by the moral health of the national soul? Will the national cohesion fought for in America in the 'sixties be retained without an effort; and may not insular nations with homogeneous populations yet hold their own in the march of national progress?