comprehension of the political life of other nations, and of their social and industrial problems and the efforts directed toward their solution. I believe that we are coming to recognize that we need something more than the bare facts regarding important events. We need to comprehend underlying causes. We need to understand more of the perspective and the significance of foreign events in their relation to our own affairs. It is important, too, that we not only keep abreast of those events which constitute live news in the mind of the cable editor, but that we should understand those social and industrial conditions, those currents of public thought, those national and racial attitudes which have now all come to form subjects of distinct practical interest to us, because they are matters directly related to our pocket-books, matters with which our material prosperity must henceforth have definite concern.
I am profoundly impressed with the importance of the awakening interest in European affairs and of the value of the clear observation of these affairs through the eyes of practical American business men. The more rapidly we lose some of our self-complacence and come to recognize that while there are many things that we do better than other people, there are many other things that we do worse, the sounder will be our understanding, both of our own resources and the strength of our competitors in the international industrial development.
In the old days, when a man had passed through his apprenticeship in some trade, his ambition impelled him to travel from one centre to another and observe the art and learn the methods that were practised wherever his trade had gained pre-eminence; and after this travel and observation he was proud to call himself a “journeyman workman.” That is the German custom to-day, and there we find not only journeymen craftsmen, but journeymen manufacturers, merchants, and bankers—men who are observing with intelligence and minute care the methods and practices of their international competitors. Just such observation is healthful for us. While it will cause the American journeyman to lose much of his Yankee complacency, it will in the end give him the firmest foundation upon which to rest his national pride and hopes for the national future. It is merely as a “journeyman” business man that I shall try to write of some of the European conditions which have come under my observation, and which seem to me of practical interest to other Americans.
In a survey of Europe which seeks to examine the qualities of nations as industrial competitors, present and prospective, the fundamental consideration must be the stability of governments. Political stability is an absolute prerequisite to industrial prosperity. Where the energies of a people are constantly diverted to the settlement of political questions, the advance of commerce and industry is greatly hindered. Stability of conditions is the foundation on which great commerce is built. A period of stability in our own political conditions is always recognized as most favorable to business development. The possibility of a change in money standard or in customs tariff unsettles every branch of commerce. The political stability of our industrial rivals is a consideration of the most practical importance to everyone concerned in our commercial life, and in any analysis of the strength of our competitors that is the first phase of the subject to investigate. Is industrial development in Europe to go forward under about the some political conditions as now exist, or do the growing expenditures and increasing debts, the weight of military organization and of naval requirements, the growth of socialism and the unsettling of established conditions, all combine to endanger the European political fabric and threaten essential modifications of government which will affect the whole commercial and industrial life? Is the map of Europe drawn in indelible colors? Will the development of commerce and industry proceed with as much protection and aid from the government and with no more obstacles and disabilities than now? Are the dangers of wars imminent? Are the economies of peace secure? Answers to these questions must all have immense influence on the future of our industrial competitors.
Since the impetus which the Czar gave to the arbitration movement through the Hague Conference there has been much progress—progress that has been recently emphasized by the conclusion of treaties between England and France, France and