CHAPTER XVI.
THE LESSONS FOR AMERICA Wealth is National Defense--Gold Mobilization--Food Supplies International--No Financial Independence--Tariffs as War Causes--Are We in a Fool's Paradise?
The lessons for the United States and for all America from this war are so many that it is difficult to arrange them in order.
The first lesson is that nations can be no longer isolated units.

A hundred years ago the United States desired to be free from Europe,--from its political system, its wage system, and its social system.

To-day the United States cannot desire to be freed from any country in the world.

Its Panama Canal, its demand for a mercantile marine, for countries to take its cotton and cotton goods, and its inquiry as to where it can get potash salts and chemical dyes, all show the interrelation of modern business which has broken all national boundaries.
England is talking to-day of a closer federation in her empire to follow this war.

She is asking why she alone should be the protector of the seas, and of the peace of Europe, not only for herself and her colonies, but for the whole world.