Relations with Other Nations
Recent trends show the United States alternating between isolation and independence, between sharply marked economic nationalism and notable international initiative in cooperation, moving in a highly unstable and zigzag course. Immigration restrictions and high tariffs on the one hand, and a World Court, a League of Nations, and outlawry of war on the other. Some signs point in the direction of independence and imperialism of a new Roman type, reaching out aggressively for more land or wider markets under political auspices; others toward amiable cooperation in the most highly developed forms of world order. It is not unreasonable to anticipate that these opposing trends will continue to alternate sharply in their control over American policy. In any case there can be little doubt that the trend will be in the future as in recent years in the direction of more intimate relations through developing modes of intercommunication and through economic interchange and on the whole toward an increasing number of international contacts; and this, whether the future pattern of action is predominantly imperialistic or cooperative in form and spirit.
Whether the United States is growing more or less militaristic must also be judged in the dubious light of conflicting theories and conduct. Traditionally insisting upon the supremacy of the civil over the military power, we have held to that doctrine and have played an important part in all movements for the curbing or abolition of war, including participation in a “war to end war.” On the other hand, out interest in foreign markets and loans has greatly increased, and the need of a strong hand in economic diplomacy has been emphasized. Our military and naval establishments have grown, and systems of military training have been expanded. Our soldiers have fought in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Powerful propagandas both for militarism and pacifism have been set in motion, and their clashes have been frequent but inconclusive. The outlawry of war and the strong was establishment have doubtless been accommodated by many minds as a practical version of Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The trends in short are conflicting and confusing, with the problems of war remaining as imminent and as grave as in the past.
Source: Recent Social Trends in the United States, an examination of the social state of the United States at the end of the 1920s undertaken at the direction of President Herbert Hoover.