Imperialism

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The Parting of the Ways in the Foreign Policy of the United StatesBy Felix Adler International Journal of Ethics 9 (Oct. 1898).

The writer of this article has been asked, almost at the moment when the present number of the Journal was going to press, to contribute an article on the above subject. A profound interest in the questions involved, the belief which he shares with many, that a critical point has been reached in the career of the American people, and that a false step now may be attended with almost irretrievable disaster, together with the fact that the public mind is not yet conclusively made up, has led him to respond to the invitation. The citizen of a free commonwealth has the right and the duty not only to take part in the actual government of the country, however indirectly, but the no less important duty and right to claim his share in the formation of public opinion, the real "power behind the throne," the source from which emanate public decisions and the force which gives them effect.

If he should not, on the one hand, in a spirit of undue self-esteem, exaggerate the value of his contribution, neither, on the other, should he withhold such thoughts as he may have to submit, but should express them freely and let them go for what they are worth.

We stand literally at the parting of the ways. The question before us is, whether we shall adhere to lines of policy which, until recently, one may say until a few months ago, have had among us the authority of a sacred tradition; or whether on the spur of the moment, as it were, under the sudden effect of what is called an expansion of the political horizon, we shall launch...