Until a century or so ago the only public benefactors were those who fought for the public. Hence, public honors, rewards, titles and estates were awarded to soldiers, and to no others. The nobility are the descendants of a warrior class. In England they are largely descendants of conquering invaders who divided up the land among themselves - a system upon which the present empire is founded, and which cannot be changed without anarchy. They have a hereditary ruling class, specialists in statecraft, unfit for other labor, yet of wonderful ability in their calling - preservation of the nation. A change has come with the nineteenth century. Formerly, traders lived because they were protected, as commensal organisms, but they did nothing to preserve the nation. They were tolerated by the ones who did risk their lives for the public. They were despised, of course. At present, the British Empire is based upon manufacturers and trade. Its traders and factory owners are making it greater and greater. There is less and less need of soldiers, who are already a very small percentage of the people. Hence, there is no longer any disgrace in being a trader or manufacturer, and these makers of Greater Britain are now given the honors, titles and estates once awarded to soldiers when they were the only public benefactors. Traders and manufacturers must now be taken into the Parliament and Cabinet where their knowledge is necessary for public guidance. Cabinets once composed of soldiers are now composed of all classes who build up the State. A new aristocracy is in process of evolution. Its progenitors, who are to be ancestors of the future nobility, are building up the Empire as surely as the soldiers of former centuries. The admission of John Burns to the Cabinet was a step further in advance, for it is a recognition of the economic value of the laboring man upon whom the state now rests. Formerly, the farming class was the foundation - now it is the manufacturing. Parliament at last is being evaded by those who are building up the Empire, and soldiers are being elbowed to one side.

German Trade

In the International Monthly, May, 1902, Dr. Paul Arnot, of Berlin, has described Germany's position and explained it upon the laws stated in this book, and stated it so well that a review will be profitable. While he has given facts he has failed to comprehend the basis or first cause - overpopulation - and he thinks that overpopulation will not come for several centuries, whereas it is the basis of all our evolution. Indeed, it is not at all unlikely that Germany was part of the theater of those struggles which evolved man. Unfortunately, it was the fighting ground for that terrible struggle with the flood of Asiatics which once overwhelmed the whole of Europe. Little States arose here and there, though occasionally they united in a loose union easily broken. Then religious difference between the different types was the ostensible cause for those bitter feuds and wars which really resulted from overpopulation. Wave after wave of emigrants flowed, south, west and east, and yet the struggle at home was intense. Tribal hatreds prevented organization into a union without which they could not take up their share of ocean traffic, which was to bring food and take away factory products of the surplus who otherwise had to migrate or fight for room.

Finally, they were welded into a mass, by "blood and iron." The surplus which had not room on the farms worked in factories, as they could sell abroad. In a century, she passed from an agrarian to an industrial nation, whereas then eighty per cent, were farmers - now it is only thirty per cent. - and though she has more acreage and twice or thrice the yield per acre, she must import food. Her exports were once solely agricultural, as that was all she had to sell - now they are mostly manufactures. Her imports were mostly manufactured goods, now they are mostly foods and raw materials for her factories. If she cannot sell her manufactures to buy food, she must diminish in population. No wonder she is struggling frantically for markets. No wonder her city population is so great. No wonder she dreads the time when we have no foods to sell her because we will use them at home.

Doctor Arnot makes one mistake when he thinks that Germany's commerce is greater than ours. He figures as foreign all the trade which Germany has with the rest of Europe, but the identical trade between our States he calls domestic. Now, there are two profits in a bargain; one each to seller and buyer, because it is advantageous to both. When Maine sells to California, the United States gets both profits, but when Germany sells to France she gets but one. Thus, our trade is leaping by bounds whereas the foreign commerce does not show it. He shows that the bulk of German trade is with Europe, just as the bulk of our trade is continental. He places us in the thud rank of traders, whereas we are easily at the second place.

The keynote of his prediction of the future is international commensalism, due to the fact that countries will devote themselves to that which pays best, but they are already in that condition.