8

A Nation’s Right to Live.

The military Balance of Power in Europe was an evil and sinister doctrine, since it took into account neither industrial development nor organic growth. The same evils in an economic and political sense still prevail in the lack of balance and proportion between the various European States and the relative size of their African territories. Surely, to revert to the principle of President Wilson’s 5th Article, the needs of a great white nation constitute beyond all question an “equitable claim of the Government whose title is to be determined.” The soldier’s lust of conquest, the profiteer’s desire for gain, the im­perialist’s greed for annexation, can never establish a daim, so valid as that of an entire people to the right to live•, grow and work.

The Factor of Raw Materials.

Never before has the importance of raw materials become so strikingly evident as in this war. Nations live through their industries, and these live through their supplies of raw materials. The right to live is the most elementary of all human and national rights. This right, translated into terms of modern economics, means the right to work. But the right of nations