other like wild cats in a scramble to get, each for himself, as much as possible of what is left. Capitalism reversed its time-honored policy of free-trade, and the era of wild imperialism in which we live has set in.
Modern crises and modern imperialism are very instructive studies. As Marx said, crises are mere symptoms of the contradictions working within the bowels of capitalism, and a means of relieving the diseased condition when it becomes acute. They are not the malady itself, they merely show the presence of the malady. So does imperialism. As a matter of fact, modern crises and modern imperialism are manifestations of the same condition, and are merely two phases of the same process. Among other things, they show how the capitalist system is kept alive by waste.
The waste of the capitalist system is of two kinds, ordinary and extraordinary. The ordinary waste is the most important, because the more extensive; it is, however, the extraordinary waste that permits us to get a glimpse into the vital forces of capitalism, and is, therefore, of greatest interest to us here. It is this extraordinary waste that manifests itself in crises and in imperialism. We have already stated how imperialism has been heralded as the saviour of capitalism from crises and ultimate destruction by providing new markets for its surplus-product. It was pointed to that the great crisis which was scheduled for the beginning of this century did not come in, and this is claimed to be due to the opening up of new markets by the imperialistic policy of the modern capitalistic nations. In a way, this is true; the effect of a crisis being the destruction of the surplus-product which can not be absorbed by the social organism, and the permission of the resumption of normal production by removing the surplus-product from the market, anything that will serve the same purpose may, for the time being, take the place of a crisis. A great war, for instance, may have the same effect. It has usually been assumed that wars bring about crises. While it is true
