New York, 1887, vol. ii. pp. 376-387.
[200-1] As federation is used in these pages for combinations of
self-governing groups, no allusion is here made to any plans for
uniting dependencies for administrative purposes such as that
contained in C. S. Salmon's _The Caribbean Confederation_,
London, 1888, or in the established grouping of dependent areas
now styled "Federated Malay States "--concerning which latter,
see Frank Swettenham, _British Malaya_, London, 1907. Such bear
no comparison with self-governing federations.
[200-2] W.H. Taft, _Popular Government_, New Haven, Connecticut,
1913, p. 145.
[201-1] G. R. Parkin, _Imperial Federation_, London, 1892, p.
33.
[201-2] As an example, cf. _Alexander Hamilton: An Essay on
American Union_, by F. S. Oliver, London, 1906.
[201-3] Lord Milner, April 28, 1910, at Compatriots' Club,
London, in Lord Milner, _The Nation and the Empire_, London,
1913, p.454.
[202-1] _The Times_, London, October 10, 1913. Cf. _ante_, p.
197.
[202-2] Letter of Rhodes to Parnell, June 19, 1888, quoted in W.
T. Stead, _The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes_,
London, 1902, pp. 122-124. On p. 120, Stead states as to Rhodes'
contribution to the Irish party: "The contract between the
African and the Irishman was strictly limited to the conversion
of Home Rule from a disruptive to a federative measure. It had
no relation directly or indirectly to any of Mr Rhodes'
Irish-African schemes. The whole story is told at length by
'Vindex' in an appendix to _The Political Life and Speeches of
Mr. Cecil Rhodes_, from which I quote these letters."
[203-1] W. T. Stead, _The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John
Rhodes_, London, 1902, p. 102, pp. 51-77 and other pages.
[204-1] P. A. Silburn, _The Governance of Empire_, London, 1910,
p. 191: "Half a century before the union of England and Scotland
was brought about, a union of British colonies had been
successfully achieved. It was in May 1643 that a convention of
colonial representatives confederated the British colonies of
Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven as the
'United Colonies of New England.' The negotiations leading up to
this confederation had taken six years, but when once the union
was effected its advantages were felt immediately. At this time
England, engaged elsewhere, had neither the time nor the
inclination to interfere with her American colonies. The
newly-formed confederation enjoyed almost complete liberty. A
year after the union we find this confederation negotiating
treaties with the French and projecting defences against the
Dutch. But this, the first union of colonies in the Empire, was
not a legislative one, it was simply an agreement of 'offence
and defence, advice and assistance.'"
[205-1] H. E. Egerton, _Federations and Unions within the
British Empire_, Oxford, 1911, p. 103, "Articles of
Confoederation betwixt the Plantations under the Government of
the Massacusetts, the Plantations under the Government of New
Plymouth, the Plantations under the Government of Conecticutt,
and the Government of Newhaven, with the Plantations in
combination with Itt."
{206}
IX
WORKING FOR FEDERATION
To maintain the individual liberty of its citizens from alien
interference is the task before each of the seven Pan-Angle
nations. Whether a closer union of the six units of the
Britannic power is sufficient insurance of the safety of each,
and whether the United States standing alone has sufficient
margin of safety, are at least debatable questions. Some foreign
power arguing in the negative might win. But that a closer union
of the entire self-governing English-speaking race would be
strong enough to protect each of its component nations is here
assumed to be not a debatable question. It is here postulated
that upwards of one hundred and forty-one million
English-speaking whites are strong enough to hold their own
against the forces of the world for considerable time to come.
The problem resolves itself into a struggle for the supremacy,
and finally for the survival, of the Pan-Angle civilization.
We can federate. All our past history teaches this.
The Britannic nations and America all contain an individualistic
form of patriotism that lends itself to Pan-Angle federation.
Just as {207} American Pan-Angle gives allegiance to the ideals
behind the dull earth he calls his home, be it city, town,
township or parish; so he gives a larger allegiance to his
state; and a still more comprehensive loyalty to his nation of
forty-eight states. Just as the Britannic Pan-Angle holds in
affection his throbbing factory city, or sheep-trimmed shire, or
township lush with ripening wheat; so he holds in greater
affection "That blessed plot, that earth, that realm, that
England," or "that" New South Wales, or "that" Saskatchewan; and
in still greater affection the British Isles, or Australia, or
Canada. Among the Britannic Pan-Angles is now growing a further
patriotism for the ideal of a Britannic whole of which each of
the six nations would be a part. Throughout the Pan-Angle world
let us add to these patriotisms for our dreamed-of Britannic
whole and for our United States a still larger patriotism for
our English-speaking civilization, our Pan-Angle lands.
Patriotism cannot attach itself to treaties or alliances, "the
very nature of an arbitration board is negative."[207-1] Nor can
it profess "loyalty" to a nation not its own. A Massachusetts
man cannot be loyal to New York State, nor a Victorian to New
South Wales, nor an Englander to Scotland. Nor can an American
be loyal to New Zealand, an Australian to South Africa, nor a
Britisher to Canada. But a Massachusetts man can be loyal to
America, a Victorian to Australia, and an Englander to the
British Isles. And all three of these men, when their nations
are part of the {208} federation of the English-speaking people,
can be loyal Pan-Angles.
Expressive of multiple patriotisms fly a multiplicity of flags.
Into battle alongside of the Stars and Stripes go the American
state flags. They know no jealousy of the national banner. Its
thirteen stripes stand for the thirteen independent nations that
originally federated; its stars, now increased to forty-eight,
stand each for a state now bound into the Union. It is not
forgotten how the men of the flag of the Maple Leaf and those of
the Four-starred and Five-starred Southern Crosses fought in
South Africa alongside the men under the Union Jack. There is as
yet no Britannic flag. The Union Jack is the British flag. It is
not, as often called, "the English flag"; it never has been. It
was formed of crosses, the emblems of three nations now united
into one nation, the British Isles. As the Union Jack and the
Stars and Stripes were made, so we can make a Pan-Angle flag
which every English-speaking man will instinctively salute. Such
a flag will subtract no glory from the cherished symbols of our
local prides. Loyalty to our common race in no way forbids
loyalty to our present local groups. All these our flags, our
loyalties, our groups, are to protect and to be protected by all
Pan-Angles.
Federation can be accomplished by either of two procedures: the
combination of the seven Pan-Angle nations directly, as seven
independent units; or the combination of the United States and a
Britannic Federation, after this latter has been formed.
Arguments for Britannic federation are arguments for Pan-Angle
federation. The man {209} who has persuaded himself of the
soundness of the former will be in a position to appreciate the
soundness of the latter. These pages are intended to set forth
the necessity and inevitableness of Pan-Angle federation, by
whichever method attained, and as such are in thorough accord
with all efforts towards Britannic federation. Either course is
possible, if delay does not furnish opportunities for our
separate destruction in the meantime by some rival civilization.
All over the Britannic world are men working for "closer union."
"The wisest and most farseeing Imperialists have steadily
maintained that the ultimate end of the whole movement is
Federation."[209-1] They are working now with only the six
Britannic nations as their acknowledged field. Organized and
unorganized, they are seeking patiently and intelligently for
the safety of their respective nations, which they know is bound
up in the safety of the whole people. They know the political
ideals of their race. They know that though the unrepresented
may be spasmodically willing to waive their rights in times of
great common danger, they none the less believe that "taxation
without representation is tyranny." These men know also that
money gifts by any Pan-Angle nation to a navy controlled by
another Pan-Angle nation is contrary to the political instincts
of all involved. They know that "mutual funk," though it may
hold their nations together for a time, is no safeguard against
the future. They are working to create a political entity, able
by the determination of its representatives to swing the whole
of its strength {210} at once against any foe. These men have
undertaken to persuade the Britannic Pan-Angle nations to put
aside local prejudices and to support the whole of which each is
a part.
Plans for Britannic "closer union" range from a scheme for
Britannic representation in the British Parliament at London,
such as Franklin advocated before the race had evolved
federalism, through schemes for an alliance of the six nations
with a capital outside the British Isles[210-1] to a plan for
definite federation, including a new Britannic Parliament to be
constituted of the representatives from each of the six
nations.[210-2]
Being now in the stage of vague alliance, it may be that the
Britannic Pan-Angles must accomplish definitely the alliance
stage as a step on the road to federation. If so, those who
favour a Britannic alliance[210-3] have the wisdom of the race
on their side. But the same wisdom prophesies that the negative
advantages of alliance will have to be changed later to the
affirmative strength of a common government. Federation has been
"the great ideal of the nineteenth century,"[210-4] and
apparently continues to {211} gain advocates. Britannic "present
'imperial architects' are building more carefully and
laboriously than did their predecessors."[211-1]
The greater part of the work for federation, either Britannic or
Pan-Angle, has already been done for us. The explorer, the
trader, the missionary, and the soldier have won for us the
eminence from which we are now able to survey the world and form
our plans. The statesmen who in our many legislative halls have
laboured to fit forms of government to the needs of the governed
have tested for us the material for our building and have
discarded what was ill-suited to our purposes. The millions of
individuals who have held true to their Pan-Angle ideals have
bequeathed them to us for inspiration. It is for us to continue
the work begun three centuries and more ago.
What remains to be done is to follow the path of our previous
successes and avoid a repetition of our failures. These failures
each nation can find often in the events of its own history
without turning to the histories of other Pan-Angles; and these
successes each nation can find in the histories of others, quite
as well as in that of its own. Such seeking will make for a
becoming modesty towards each other, and by it we shall lose
nothing. We are not dealing in this matter with our inferiors or
our betters. We are dealing with each other, to whom we cannot
give, and with whom we cannot curry, favour. Conciliation among
us is not less {212} necessary than compromise; without
conciliation in the past we should not have framed successful
constitutions. To-day, as in the folk-moots of our political
ancestors,--" No man dictates to the assembly: he may persuade,
but cannot command."[212-1] There is no room for hypocrisy among
free whites who talk English. In our dealings with each other
neither force nor intrigue should have place. Our history shows
that if we adhere to these ideals we can succeed in
co-operation.
We must avoid interfering with each other. Interference even
when actuated by the best of motives leads, as Pan-Angles have
repeatedly experienced, to disastrous frictions and ruptures.
This knowledge we have repeatedly bought at great cost. So well
has the lesson been learned, that even in cases where
interference is constitutional and where circumstances seem to
justify it, a Pan-Angle government first tries persuasion. The
United States Federal Government may consider a Californian
alien land act contrary to a United States treaty; the British
Parliament may consider the Ulster agitation serious enough to
justify coercion: both know that conciliation and persuasion are
the safe and permanent means to employ to right whatever the
wrong may be. Interference augments stubbornness; persuasion
hastens co-operation.
More than this, interference leads to failure. In 1849, the
British Privy Council drafted a bill for the federation of the
Australian colonies. It was not made by those for whose use it
was intended. {213} Its clauses did "not show any close grip of
the subject, or sign that their authors realized how they could
be worked in practice."[213-1] Nothing came of the plan. The
only purpose it served was to illustrate the futility of one
Pan-Angle nation acting for another. In 1819-1820 began the
Britannic immigrant occupation of South Africa.[213-2] In 1875
the British Isles government suggested that the various colonies
in South Africa should be combined.[213-3] Viewed in the
knowledge of to-day it almost appears such a step would have
been advisable. The best intentions must be imputed to the
outside government. Had this action been advocated by the South
Africans, some kind of joint government might have resulted.
Since it was not, the plan was merely a source of increased hard
feeling between colonists of Dutch and British descent, and is
to be included with other instances of British interference
which were the major causes of the long and bitter Great Boer
War. Each of these nations, Australia and South Africa, when it
was ready and in its own way, produced for itself a plan of
common government. A Britisher in the highest administrative
office in South Africa wrote in 1907: "It is a modern axiom of
British policy that any attempt to manage the domestic affairs
of a white population by a continuous exercise of the direct
authority of the Imperial Parliament, in which the people
concerned are not represented, is, save under very special
circumstances, a certain {214} path to failure."[214-1] American
experience goes still further. There, every community is
represented in every government having legislative jurisdiction
over it. Yet it has been proved advisable to leave certain
spheres of legislation solely to the wishes of the community
affected.
For many years the British Isles has been the Pan-Angle nation
which, from its position, was most tempted to interfere with the
affairs of the others. The lessons its failures set forth may be
taken to heart by the younger nations as they grow in strength.
Neither America, nor Canada, nor Australia, nor South Africa,
nor New Zealand, nor Newfoundland can at any time in their
future afford to make the mistake of trying to compel one of the
six other nations. An advantage of numbers, or position, or
wealth, may lie at some time with anyone of them. On that one,
then, will rest the obligation of keeping its hands off the
others. Particularly does this apply to that one of us whose
very existence is due to its revolt against interference, but
hardly less to those others of us whose more peaceful origins
were made possible by an already won revolution.
Federation should be attained through familiar governmental
forms, not through innovations. Burke knew his civilization's
aversion to _change_ which "alters the substance of the objects
themselves, and gets rid of all their essential good as well as
of all the accidental evil annexed to them," {215} whose results
"cannot certainly be known beforehand." He knew his
civilization's belief in _reform_--" a direct application of a
remedy to the grievance complained of. So far as that is
removed, all is sure. It stops there; and if it fails, the
substance which underwent the operation, at the very worst, is
but where it was."[215-1] In this _re-form_, the essence of our
civilization--our language, our individualism, our standards of
living based on land plenty--should be left unchanged. The new
growth, federation, will "remedy the grievance complained
of"--the danger of the extinction of our civilization.
Pending federation, the Pan-Angle nations must on no account
weaken each other, and so the entire race, with war. Much faith
is put, in these days, in arbitration, but on false
presumptions. No so-called "international arbitration court" in
existence has any authority whatsoever.[215-2] Such a body is of
value only when it is giving advice to contestants who greatly
desire to come to a friendly agreement, and who, for the sake of
peace, are predisposed to take the "court's" advice. Even then
its value is not great, for such contestants might very
probably, without its aid, have come to a peaceable
understanding. The Pan-Angle nations do most heartily desire
peace among themselves. They are then the best calculated to
find arbitration useful. The question thus arises whether some
tribunal can be established on Pan-Angle soil, for the
settlement of Pan-Angle inter-national {216} disputes. It would
be a makeshift and powerless, until by the establishment of a
common government it ceased to be inter-national, and became a
potent source of justice under the Pan-Angle federation.[216-1]
It is, however, a straw we well might grasp until we reach a
firmer footing. The greatest advantage of an organized body for
Pan-Angle arbitration is that from it might develop something
more practicable, as from the Maryland-Virginia Conference at
Alexandria in 1785[216-2] and as from the South African Railway
Rates Conference in 1908[216-3] developed respectively the
federations of the United States and South Africa.
Other stepping-stones ready for our use are to be found in
Britannic-American conferences on matters of mutual interest. In
February 1908 a conference on the conservation of the natural
resources of North America was held at Washington, at which
three Pan-Angle nations were represented by delegates.[216-4]
Some of the subjects suitable for such discussion are forests,
river flowage for power or irrigation purposes, and migrating
birds. If a conference were held for mutual information on
sea-fisheries, all our nations might well send delegates. A
similar opportunity is afforded in the urgent need of making
uniform and sensible the spelling of our language. At a meeting
in connection with the Conference of Education {217}
Associations in London, January 5, 1914, it was stated "that an
international conference should be summoned at which all parts
of the British Empire and the United States should be
represented."[217-1]
However great the good resulting from such conferences in
relation to their stated objects, it may some day appear
insignificant compared to the assistance rendered towards
producing federation.
Quicker and cheaper communication is working steadily towards
better Pan-Angle understanding. International postal
arrangements date only from 1874, but two-cent (penny in the
British Isles, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa) postage
is now so general from points within to other points within the
Pan-Angle world, that by far the majority of inter-Pan-Angle
letters have the advantage of that rate. Land and water
telegraphs by wire and wireless are steadily linking up points
further and further apart, and rates are becoming cheaper. The
telephone is now a common household necessity over much of the
Pan-Angle world, and bids fair in time to conquer distances as
effectively as do telegraph lines. Every such agency, producing
a very real "closer union," is a factor in promoting Pan-Angle
federation.
The cheapness and speed of travel are increasing at rates to
which no bounds can reasonably be set. Steamers, on which we so
largely depend as inter-Pan-Angle carriers, yearly serve more
routes, are more numerous and faster. We shift easily from one
country to another as business or inclination takes us.
Ambassador Page has proposed that newspaper men from the British
Isles and America serve an {218} apprenticeship on journalistic
staffs in each other's countries.[218-1] The imperial "grand
tour" of the British Isles parliamentary party, recently
completed,[218-2] gave British politicians, better than would
any number of voluminous reports, an opportunity to appreciate
the needs and aspirations of the five other Britannic nations.
The celebration of the Centenary of Peace will this year furnish
innumerable similar opportunities. Every personal acquaintance
of one Pan-Angle with the country of other Pan-Angles makes for
the understanding that must precede federation.
The formation of a Pan-Angle federation must depend in the end
on our voters who are the source of first and final appeal in
our political problems. It will be achieved when they are
self-persuaded that it is desirable, that is, when they have
been educated to see its necessity. Only such means of education
may properly be used as will open the path to self-persuasion.
Among these, two readily suggest themselves. The first is the
educative work that can be done by associations of those aroused
to interest in the matter. The second is the educative influence
of travel and sojourn of Pan-Angles in each other's countries.