to most of the countries. The sum to be transmitted is fixed arbitarily by the regulations. No well defined principle would seem to indicate that the system may not be indefinitely extended until it covers the whole field of foreign exchange. Postal savings banks add to the local importance of the postal service but as yet perform no international functions.

The inherent goodness of the international postal organization is such that, notwithstanding the destruction and bitterness of feeling engendered by the great war, at its conclusion the mail service is at once resumed as fast as order is restored. The domestic administration of each country connects its service with that of its recent enemy and this one function of government again becomes world-wide in its efficiency.

NATIONAL EXPANSION

The face of the earth is not apportioned among the nations on the basis of population or with special reference to their requirements. The possessions and boundaries of a nation are in very large measure determined by its military operations, its diplomacy and its colonial policy. The density of its population depends not so much on the fertility of its soil as on the genius of its people and the nature of its industries. Manufacturing and trade tend to concentrate population in cities because very little ground is needed for their operations. It is necessary, however, that they have markets for the sale of their products and adequate sources of supplies. These may be found either within or without the political dominion of their government. The fear of unfriendly legislation by other nations with whom they trade has led most European nations to seek territorial extension over agricultural and mineral lands, so that the political organization may be able to protect the industrial enterprises. The desire of each nation to be self-sufficient appears on first impression to be natural and reasonable, but it so appears only because the importance of political functions is grossly exaggerated and the inherent strength of the bonds of common interests and mutual welfare overlooked or underrated. It is natural that the political

heads of states should feel a burden of responsibility for the prosperity of all their people and of their business enterprises, and that they should desire such extension of their territorial dominions as will enable them to act efficiently. In dealing with other sovereign powers they find themselves confronted with conflicting views of interest, if not in fact with real conflict of interests. Dealings between the nations are dependent in great measure on governmental policies. Trade regulations and restrictions may take the form of taxation of imports or exports, or of the prohibition of exportation or importation of designated articles of commerce. In recent years commercial treaties have done much to remove unreasonable burdens and hindrances of commerce, but the doctrine of absolute sovereignty over a definite portion of the earth, with power to adopt a hostile commercial policy at any time, causes continuing anxiety and desire for increased security.

The desire for an outlet for surplus population does not exert such a potent influence in favor of territorial expansion as might be expected. During the recent years of great military and naval establishments the desire of the most populous nations has been to add to their population and military force, rather than to encourage emigration. By extension of trade an increased population may be supported. So the nations of Europe seek not only agricultural districts in sparsely peopled regions in America and Africa, but political power in the densely peopled parts of Asia with which a profitable trade may be carried on.

It cannot be truly said that any European nation now has difficulty in finding an outlet for its surplus population. America, North and South, opens its doors to all Europeans on the most liberal and attractive terms, but to take full and permanent advantage of this outlet, the population of Europe will be diminished and that of America increased. National strength will be diminished by emigration and increased by immigration. Statesmen therefore desire increase rather than diminution of the numbers of their people.

The situation of Japan and China is somewhat different. Race differences and materially different habits and customs.

prevent that degree of cordial welcome to them in America. that is extended to Europeans, who are of the same stock as the people of America. This has led to restrictive legislation and treaty provisions denying the Asiatics free and unlimited access to this continent. Japan has of late made very rapid progress in the extension of its manufactures and trade, and appears to be rapidly increasing in prosperity. China has its congested districts, overcrowded with people, but it also has vast undeveloped resources, quite ample for the needs of all its people when properly utilized with the aid of modern machinery and transportation facilities. India also has its congested districts and its waste places. Its system of castes interposes a very serious obstacle in the way of industrial organization in accordance with western ideas. It is still, as in the earliest dawn of history, a country of vast weath and resources and of much poverty and distress. In spite of religious differences the British Government has not only been able to maintain its political dominion over the whole country, but has been able to draw very substantial aid in men and supplies to carry on the great war.

England has acquired ample dominions beyond the seas; France has great possessions in Africa and Asia; the Netherlands has very rich possessions in Java and the East Indies; and other European states have valuable territories in distant lands. Russia before the revolution had vast undeveloped natural resources and ample room for the expansion of her population, but the interior states of Europe looked to their immediate neighbors for increase of their possessions. Turkey, the Balkan States, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and numerous other nations that have now or at times past had more or less extended sovereignty, are and must be limited in their territories by the boundaries of their neighbors. From the most ancient times their rulers have waged war with each other for the extension of their power, but no effort, no effusion of blood, avails to add a foot of territory to the aggregate possessions of all of them. Doubtless the people of these states have believed that they were vitally interested in increasing the dominions of their rulers. Apparently they were so while

the doctrine of absolute, independent sovereignty obtained, unmitigated by any general combination of all of them to promote the general welfare.

Commercial nations find that to attain the maximum prosperity they must be permitted to buy and sell in every part of the globe. Each country has its peculiar products and its special needs. Those engaged in the same line of production must often resort to others in the same line for supplies when their own crops fail. Maximum prosperity for all is only possible when the resources of all are fully utilized and their products distributed where they are most needed. Moral and material progress for the world do not lie along the line of extension of the political power of any nation, but of the curtailment of political powers in the separate nations and more extended combinations for mutual benefit and general welfare. The discords and wars between nations are in most cases the result of conflicting ambitions for power and desire for commercial advantages. Rome broke down the barriers in Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea by extending its dominion over all, but since its disintegration no other nation has succeeded in acquiring like dominion in Europe, though the areas of the British and Russian Empires throughout their whole extent were, prior to the war, much greater than that of the Roman

ever was.

All the nations of Europe cry for expansion, and feel the stifling restrictions of national boundaries. Throughout all the centuries they have looked to the extension of their own political dominion for relief, and have waged numberless wars to gain this end, the main result of all of which has been misery and disappointment. It is clear that they have failed to choose the right road. The extension of the political power of one people over another is not even an approach toward the coveted goal. The real need is that each and every nation shall be shorn of its powers of aggression. Instead of fortifying the boundary lines and interposing barriers between nations the welfare of all demands that they be removed and increased facilities provided for crossing the borders. Railroads, wagon roads, bridges, telegraphs, telephones, and all other aids to

commerce and social intercourse should be provided to promote the general welfare of all and to break down the obstacles which political isolation interposes. The little interior states of Europe feel the constant pressing need of supplies from without coal, iron, cotton, wool, and other raw materials for their industries, as well as food supplies for their people. No mere extension of a national boundary over a neighbor's land answers the full purpose. A full measure of prosperity demands free access to the markets of the whole world. This can not by any possibility be secured in any other way than by the friendly accord and cooperation of all the peoples. War anywhere affects the people of every country in greater or less degree. Every exchange of a surplus product of one country for the surplus of needed supplies produced by another is a net gain to both of the whole value of both products, less the costs of transportation and exchange. Mutual benefit, not the mere advantage of one party to the transaction, is the basis of all commerce. All the nations are interested in its promotion, and also in the increase of production of useful things everywhere. No more than the grand total of all that is produced can be distributed, and free access to the people of every nation must be open if the surplus from each district is to be made available to those who need it most.

Treaties and conventions dealing merely with the distribution among sovereignties of political power and dominion make no appreciable progress toward the desired end. The world-old ideal of supreme, ultimate, and absolute sovereignty in the government of each district of the earth must be abandoned, and in its place must come the ideal of universal good will and mutual help. Along these lines all nations may freely expand without encroachment on each other. The International Postal Union is a pioneer organization of the kind needed. It performs no political function, but ministers to the welfare of every nation, and is by far the greatest public agency that ever was established. The secret of its success lies in the moral and economic soundness of its purposes. The principles of its operation are applicable to all lines of commercial intercourse between peoples. Instead of directing the