new markets. But this is not all. As far as the safety of the capitalistic system is concerned, in so far as it affects the "general prosperity of the country," as it is euphoniously styled, the millions expended in the effort to sell goods to the Philippines are not waste but gain. These millions represent so many millions worth of goods sold by the capitalists of the United States for unproductive consumption by military and civil employes and officials, a very effective though not always profitable way of disposing of a surplus-product which threatens to clog the wheels of business. It is true that this is sheer waste. But it is on waste that the capitalist system now depends for the continuance of its existence.
In this connection it must be added that it is not only the moneys so expended directly that are wasted in that manner and for that purpose, or at least with that effect. To the direct expenses of colonies must be added the general military and naval establishments of modern nations, which are necessitated by this imperialistic policy. Every dollar expended in the military and naval "needs" of a country are the purest waste, but it is at the same time absolutely necessary for the preservation of the capitalistic system. Furthermore, it is not only the money expended on these "needs," and included in the official budgets, that must be taken into consideration. The big military and naval establishments require men, besides money. These men are taken away from ordinary production where they would compete with other men in the labor-market, and where the products by them produced would swell the masses of surplus-product to be disposed of in far-away lands. The taking away of a man for military or naval purposes (including administrative duties of all sorts), relieves the labor-market by one man, and at the same time creates a demand for the goods to be consumed by him which are to be produced by those remaining at work at some useful occupation. Hence our continued prosperity. Waste is the safety-valve of capitalism.
