Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/145

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THE OPEN DOOR
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driving force behind the grievances and aspirations of thwarted nationalism, political ambition, and imperialistic megalomania. A recent writer[1] has thus condensed these facts of history: "It is essential to remember that what turns a territory into a diplomatic problem is the combination of natural resources, cheap labour, markets, defencelessness, corrupt and inefficient government."

If the Free Trade policy is to fulfil its mission as a civilizing, pacifying agency, it must adapt itself to the larger needs of this modern situation. Free Trade is indeed the nucleus of the larger constructive economic internationalism; but it needs a conversion from the negative conception of laissez faire, laissez aller, to a positive constructive one. The required policy must direct itself to secure economic liberty and equality not for trade alone, but for the capital, the enterprise, and the labour, which are required to do the work of development in all the backward countries of the earth, whether those coun-

  1. ↑ Mr. Lippmann, "The Stakes of Diplomacy," p. 93.
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