But it is impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, or peace and freedom out of capitalism.  The fourfold agreement between England, France, America and Japan is, perhaps, a safeguard of peace, but in so far as it brings peace nearer it puts freedom further off.  It is the peace obtained when competing firms join in a combine, which is by no means always advantageous to those who have profited by the previous competition.  It is quite possible to dominate China without infringing the principle of the Open Door.  This principle merely ensures that the domination everywhere shall be American, because America is the strongest Power financially and commercially.  It is to America’s interest to secure, in China, certain things consistent with Chinese interests, and certain others inconsistent with them.  The Americans, for the sake of commerce and good investments, would wish to see a stable government in China, an increase in the purchasing power of the people, and an absence of territorial aggression by other Powers.  But they will not wish to see the Chinese strong enough to own and work their own railways or mines, and they will resent all attempts at economic independence, particularly when (as is to be expected) they take the form of State Socialism, or what Lenin calls State Capitalism.  They will keep a dossier of every student educated in colleges under American control, and will probably see to it that those who profess Socialist or Radical opinions shall get no posts.  They will insist upon the standard of hypocrisy which led them to hound out Gorky when he visited the United States.  They will destroy beauty and substitute tidiness.  In short, they will insist upon China becoming as like as possible to “God’s own country,” except that it will not be allowed to keep the wealth generated by its industries.  The Chinese have it in them to give to the world a new contribution to civilization as valuable as that which they gave in the past.  This would be prevented by the domination of the Americans, because they believe their own civilization to be perfect.

The ideal of capitalism, if it could be achieved, would be to destroy competition among capitalists by means of Trusts, but to keep alive competition among workers.  To some extent Trade Unionism has succeeded in diminishing competition among wage-earners within the advanced industrial countries; but it has only intensified the conflict between workers of different races, particularly between the white and yellow races.[92] Under the existing economic system, the competition of cheap Asiatic labour in America, Canada or Australia might well be harmful to white labour in those countries.  But under Socialism an influx of industrious, skilled workers in sparsely populated countries would be an obvious gain to everybody.  Under Socialism, the immigration of any person who produces more than he or she consumes will be a gain to every other individual in the community, since it increases the wealth per