stages of economic evolution: Agriculture--Industry--
Commerce.

Large groups and interests turned their attention to
maritime matters. Neutrality and war dividends, rising
as high in some cases as 100 or even 200 per cent, elec-
trified the shipping and commercial interests with a new
ambition. A wave of nationalistic psychology gathered
force with startling suddenness. Militarism, fear, a thou-
sand abnormal emotions, seethed in the cauldron of those
war years. The President of the United States, probably
the best political mind of his time, called for a powerful
military force upon the sea, "incomparably the most
adequate navy in the world," and later sought to justify
the demand on the ground that such a weapon would
become a sword of righteousness in the hands of the
United States, for our country was seen as an incor-
ruptible dispenser of international justice surrounded by
evildoers. How powerful were those giant psychic whirl-
pools and how impotent in their grasp was man, the
atom!

The combat memories of the race were stirred. New
spirit animated all of the aggressively nationalistic
groups in American society. Irresistible in 1917 and 1918,
they continued to thrive from the momentum of war
spirit and propaganda even after the restoration of
peace. An urge for power swept through their ranks. A
grander national destiny through arms, expressed in the
softer terminology of national defense, fascinated them.

Probably the outstanding aspect of this increased
nationalism was a desire for power on the ocean. The
revitalized naval groups, their economic allies (the
shipping interests), and their psychological supporters
(the patriotic societies) joined in urging that the Ameri-
can people should become sea-minded. A brilliant book,
The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660- 1783,
written by Captain Alfred T. Mahan a quarter of a

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