Page 278 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

A Twentieth- Century Outlook. 259

begin really to look abroad, and to busy our-
selves with our duties to the world at large in
our generation — and not before— we shall
stretch out our hands to Great Britain, realiz-
ing that in unity of heart among the English-
speaking races lies the best hope of humanity
in the doubtful days ahead.
In the determination of the duties of nations,
nearness is the most conspicuous and the most
general indication. Considering the American
states as members of the European family, as
they are by traditions, institutions, and lan-
guages, it is in the Pacific, where the westward
course of empire again meets the East, that
their relations to the future of the world
become most apparent. The Atlantic, bor-
dered on either shore by the European family
in the strongest and most advanced types of its
political development, no longer severs, but
binds together, by all the facilities and abun-
dance of water communications, the once
divided children of the same mother; the in-
heritors of Greece and Rome, and of the Teu-
tonic conquerors of the latter. A limited
express or a flying freight may carry a few pas-
sengers or a small bulk overland from the