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sophical thought, so that we may strive for the fullest development of humanity in every land.

12. PACIFIC RELATIONS FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF
THE UNITED STATES

BY RAY LYMAN WILBUR

The Pacific Ocean was a late discovery in the political and national life of the United States. While there were early settlements by the Russians and Spaniards in the Pacific Coast area the development of the United States, as we now know it, began when immigrants, coming largely from Great Britain, settled in New England and along the James River in the south. These immigrants were led by men who insisted upon cutting loose from European conditions which had become oppressive.

The New England settlement was strongly Puritan in tone and had a firm, austere, religious background. They found a harsh climate, a reluctant soil, and a hostile native population. There was here a gradual increase in population and a development of points of view and of political institutions which are still the most potent forces in American life.

Conditions were less harsh for those settling in the south. They found a balmy climate, fruitful soil, and soon developed the idea of bringing in slave labor.

Between these two groups there came a third of unusual significance, the Quakers of Pennsylvania. They dealt with the native population upon a more friendly basis and came to the new continent with a fixed attitude against war.

The Dutch settlement in New York, because of its fortunate location, early attained a significant prominence.

Along with these immigrants came many who were driven out because of political or religious disputes in Europe, and others who had the pioneer spirit and who were willing to face the privations of life in a new continent. North of them developed a great French immigration which eventually led to wars between the British and the French on the American continent. The success of the British finally brought about their control over Canada.

In all of these settlements a considerable portion of the population began to create ideas of cooperation and a solidarity which soon led to resentment to domination from abroad. Although there was wide diversity between the settlements in the North and those of the South they united in the War of the Revolution in 1775, which gave independence to the new states which had been set up. A full century was then consumed in

the gradual absorption of the continent. Waves of migration, entending farther and farther, finally reached the Pacific Coast in 1849. During all of this settlement of a continent there were conflicting points of view as to governmental procedure and the holding of slaves, which finally led to the great War of the Rebellion when, under the guiding hand of Lincoln, the states were welded into a common nation and slavery was abolished.

During this whole period the main clashes concerned themselves largely with questions in which race was involved. From the very beginning the Indian was a constant menace to the early settlers. As new territory was occupied the Indian always had to be met, either by measures of war or peace. The negro brought in by the southern settlers in constantly increasing numbers laid the basis for the economic situation which precipitated the Civil War of 1861-1865. Because of generations of debate and dispute in regard to the Indians and the negroes, the American people, although made up of the representatives many countries, have developed a peculiar sensitiveness to race questions.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

With the efforts made in Europe for the separation of church and state and the ruptures there between different groups advocating the Christian religion, whole communities were dislocated from their normal lives and sought refuge on the new continent. When the new government was first set up after the Revolution, freedom from religious domination was one of its primary principles.

FORM OF GOVERNMENT

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At the same time through the great tides of the French Revolution, convictions had been developed as to forms of government and domination by hereditary families was particularly frowned upon. gathered to make the Constitution of the United States endeavored to balance out the proper relations between legislation, administration and the judicial functions of government and to assure a democracy. Checks against hasty action were established and a definite effort made to separate the functions between the different branches of the government. While this separation was unusually successful, there was necessarily an inevitable overlapping.

SETTLEMENT OF THE CONTINENT

Following the War of the Rebellion there was a distribution of the soldiers of both armies over much of the undeveloped territory in the heart of the continent. With the development of mining and of irrigation

much of the land that had seemed uninhabitable in the west and along the Rocky Mountains was occupied. With a steady increase in the population until it approximated 100,000,000 there was, because of the advantages of the new continent and the industry of the settlers, the development of unusual educational facilities and of a high general standard of living. The latter part of this development was coincident with the industrial changes brought about by modern invention and the introduction of power into everyday community and family life.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Up until the time of the war with Spain in 1897, the nation was so busy in the processes of construction that it was comparatively uninterested in foreign affairs. Dewey's battle in Manila Bay with the Spanish fleet and the sending of troops from the various states to occupy the Philippine islands, together with the events taking place in the Hawaiian islands, brought the Pacific Ocean for the first time into the ordinary home of the United States. Before this there had been only the romance of China, of Japan, and of India, and the reports coming back from the missionaries in these countries and in the islands of the south, but there had been no general interest in the Pacific and its problems.

With the acquisition of the Philippines there immediately developed in America two general points of view: one opposed to their retention, and the other firm in the belief that America had accepted a duty which she must carry out by doing everything within reason to advance the welfare of the peoples of those islands.

THE PANAMA CANAL

The dramatic episodes associated with the construction of the Panama Canal again brought the Pacific into the foreground of American thought and the United States began to plan in a half-hearted but earnest way to be again a sea-faring nation after the lapse of nearly a century.

This brings to mind that it is a significant thing to trace the history of the organization of the United States Public Health Service. Following the war with Great Britain (1812-1814) it was concluded that there would be no more naval wars and the American Navy as such was practically abandoned, but it was thought desirable to have a merchant marine so there was set up a marine hospital service and those who had seen service in the American Navy were permitted certain rights in the hospitals. That branch is now the United States Public Health Service. It gives one an idea of the kind of thinking that was going on in America a hundred years ago.

IMMIGRATION

While the white man had found the United States an unusually favored dwelling place and had multiplied rapidly, the rapid growth in population came from continued immigrations from Great Britain and Ireland, and then from the western, northern, and southern portions of Europe. There was a constant demand for cheap labor. The immigrations upon the Pacific Coast of the Chinese and Japanese were similar in origin and in effect to the other immigrations and brought with them the question of race to which the Americans were particularly sensitive because of their historical background. The instinctive fear of race mixtures must be understood by all who would appreciate the present situation. In this attitude of Americans towards race mixtures the question of the inferiority of one race or the superiority of another is not primarily involved. The attitude depends upon the fear of the birth of children and the development thereby of citizens who are misplaced socially, unhappy, and the inevitable sources of social dissatisfaction and discontent. The understanding that a democracy must have contented citizens as a basis for security is an instinct developed by the people of the United States.

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Absorption of the population upon the new land and amalgamation of the European immigrants went on rapidly. In the War of the Rebellion in 1861 the recent immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and elsewhere, took an active part in the battles of the period. It was not until the soulsearching period between 1914 and 1917 that the ordinary citizen of the United States began to realize the effect of mass immigrations of large numbers of people still retaining their national characteristics and their sympathies with the mother country. It took the crisis of the events leading up to the declaration of war against Germany to weld the American people into a common unit; but the fears of those who had watched the process were the basis for the immigration legislation directed against all countries, which is now in force. In the working out of this legislation there were many disputes. The primary debate was one of jurisdiction between the administrative and legislative branches of the government. Under the Constitution immigration was a domestic question under the control of Congress. By procedure and precedent many phases of immigration had been dealt with directly by the administrative authorities, the Secretary of State, the President, and the Senate as a ratifying power. It is an interesting thing for those outside to realize the clash that there was in our country in connection with the question, where the power lay to determine what the immigration laws should be. It was Congress' contention that the power lay in Congress. As you probably know democracies as far as history shows have never acquired great reputations for being

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