One of the main causes of the prosperity of the great American Republic
is its natural resources. It possesses coal, oil, silver, gold,
copper, and all the other mineral ores. Nature seems, indeed, to have
provided almost everything that man needs. The soil is rich; wheat and
every kind of fruit can be grown; but favorable as are these native
conditions they could not be turned to any great advantage without the
skill and industry of enterprising men. Many countries in Africa and
Asia possess equal advantages, but they are not equally prosperous.
This leads me to the consideration of another reason for America's
growth. The men who have migrated to the United States have not been
rich people. They went there to make a living. They were prepared to
work, their purpose was to improve their condition, and they were
willing to undertake any manual or mental labor to accomplish their
object. They were hardy and strong and could bear a heavy strain.
Their children inherited their good qualities, and so an American is
generally more hard working and enterprising than most of the people in
Europe and elsewhere.
Another reason for America's success is the great freedom which each
citizen enjoys. Every man considers himself the equal of every other,
and a young man who is ambitious will not rest until he reaches the top
of his profession or trade. Thousands of Americans who were once very
poor, have become millionaires or multi-millionaires. Many of them had
no college education, they taught themselves, and some of them have
become both literary and scholarly. A college or university education
does not necessarily make a man learned; it only gives him the
opportunity to learn. It is said that some college men have proven
themselves to be quite ignorant, or rather that they do not know so
much as those who have been self-taught. I do not in any way wish to
disparage a college education; no doubt men who have been trained in a
university start in life with better prospects and with a greater
chance of success, but those men who have not had such advantages have
doubtless done much to make their country great and prosperous, and
they ought to be recognized as great men.
The general desire of the American people to travel abroad is one of
their good traits. People who never leave their homes cannot know
much. A person may become well-informed by reading, but his practical
knowledge cannot be compared with that of a person who has travelled.
We Chinese are great sinners in this regard. A Chinese maxim says, "It
is dangerous to ride on horseback or to go on a voyage": hence until
very recently we had a horror of going abroad. A person who remains
all his life in his own town is generally narrow-minded,
self-opinioned, and selfish. The American people are free from these
faults. It is not only the rich and the well-to-do who visit foreign
countries, but tradesmen and workmen when they have saved a little
money also often cross the Atlantic. Some years ago a Senator in
Washington told me that he crossed the Atlantic Ocean every summer and
spent several months in Europe, and that the next trip would be his
twenty-eighth voyage. I found, however, that he had never gone beyond
Europe. I ventured to suggest that he should extend his next annual
journey a little farther and visit Japan, China, and other places in
the Far East which I felt sure he would find both interesting and
instructive. I have travelled through many countries in Europe and
South America, and wherever I have gone and at whatever hotel I have
put up, I have always found some Americans, and on many occasions I
have met friends and acquaintances whom I had known in Washington or
New York. But it is not only the men who go abroad; in many cases
ladies also travel by themselves. On several occasions lady friends
from Washington, Philadelphia, and New York have visited me in Peking.
This is one of the Americans' strong points. Is it not wiser and much
more useful to disburse a few hundred dollars or so in travelling and
gaining knowledge, coming in contact with other peoples and enlarging
the mind, than to spend large sums of money in gaudy dresses, precious
stones, trinkets, and other luxuries?
In a large country like America where a considerable portion of the
land still remains practically uncultivated or undeveloped, hardy,
industrious, and patient workmen are a necessity. But the almost
unchecked influx of immigrants who are not desirable citizens cannot
but harm the country. In these days of international trade it is right
that ingress and egress from one country to another should be
unhampered, but persons who have committed crimes at home, or who are
ignorant and illiterate, cannot become desirable citizens anywhere.
They should be barred out of the United States of America. It is well
known that foreigners take part in the municipal and federal affairs of
the country as soon as they become citizens. Now if such persons
really worked for the good of their adopted country, there could be no
objection to this, but it is no secret that many have no such motives.
That being so, it is a question whether steps should not be taken to
limit their freedom. On the other hand, as many farms suffer from lack
of workmen, people from whatever country who are industrious, patient,
and persevering ought to be admitted as laborers. They would be a
great boon to the nation. The fear of competition by cheap labor is
causeless; regulations might be drawn up for the control of these
foreign laborers, and on their arrival they could be drafted to those
places where their services might be most urgently needed. So long as
honest and steady workmen are excluded for no reason other than that
they are Asiatics, while white men are indiscriminately admitted, I
fear that the prosperity of the country cannot be considered permanent,
for agriculture is the backbone of stable wealth. Yet at present it is
the country's wealth which is one of the important factors of America's
greatness. In the United States there are thousands of individuals
whose fortunes are counted by seven or eight figures in gold dollars.
And much of this money has been used to build railways, or to develop
manufactories and other useful industries. The country has grown great
through useful work, and not on account of the army and navy. In 1881
America's army numbered only 26,622 men, and her navy consisted of only
24 iron-clads, 2 torpedo-boats, and 25 tugs, but in 1910 the peace
strength of her army was 96,628 and the navy boasted 33 battleships and
120 armored cruisers of different sizes.
Within the last few years it has been the policy of many nations to
increase the army and to build as many Dreadnaughts and
super-dreadnaughts as possible. Many statesmen have been infected by
this Dreadnaught fever. Their policy seems to be based on the idea
that the safety of a nation depends on the number of its battleships.
Even peaceful and moderate men are carried away by this hobby, and
support it. It is forgotten that great changes have taken place during
the last twenty or thirty years; that a nation can now be attacked by
means quite beyond the reach of Dreadnaughts. The enormous sums spent
on these frightful monsters, if applied to more worthy objects, would
have a greater effect in preserving the nations' heritages than
anything these monstrosities can do.
The nation which has a large army and a strong navy may be called
powerful, but it cannot be considered great without other good
requisites. I consider a nation as great when she is peacefully,
justly, and humanely governed, and when she possesses a large number of
benevolent and good men who have a voice in the administration. The
greater the number of good men that a nation possesses the greater she
becomes. America is known to have a large number of such men and
women, men and women who devote their time and money to preaching peace
among the nations. Mr. Andrew Carnegie is worth a hundred
Dreadnaughts. He and others like him are the chief factors in
safeguarding the interests and welfare of America. The territory of
the United States is separated from Europe and other countries by vast
oceans; so that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a foe to
successfully attack any portion of that country. But who wishes to
attack her? She has scarcely an enemy. No country is invaded by
another without cause, and as the United States is in friendly
relations with all the Powers, there is no reason to fear foreign
invasion. Even should a foreign power successfully attack her and
usurp a portion of her territories, a supposition which is most
improbable, would the enemy be able to hold what he seized? History
shows that no conquered country has ever been successfully and
permanently kept without the people's consent, and there is not the
least chance that the Americans will ever consent to the rule of a
foreign government.
It is to be hoped that the United States will not follow the example of
other nations and unduly increase her armaments, but that she will take
the lead in the universal peace movement and show the world that a
great power can exist and maintain her position without force of arms.
I am aware that general disarmament is not popular among statesmen,
that it has been denounced by an eminent authority as a "will-o'-the
wisp", that arbitration has been styled a "Jack-o'-lantern", but this
is not the first time a good and workable scheme has been branded with
opprobrious names. The abolition of slavery was at one time considered
to be an insane man's dream; now all people believe in it. Will the
twentieth century witness the collapse of our present civilization?
Why are the world's armaments constantly increasing? To my mind it is
due to two causes, one of which is mistrust. One nation begins to
build Dreadnaughts, another does the same through fear and mistrust.
The second cause is that it is the fashion of some nations to follow
the example of others that they may preserve their position as great
naval powers. But it is unnecessary for the United States to show such
mistrust or to follow such fashion. She should rather, as becomes a
great and powerful nation, take an independent course of her own. If
she sets the example other nations in due time will follow her. The
peace of the world will be more surely guarded, and America will win
the approbation, the respect, and the gratitude of all peace-loving
people.