Cambridge Tribune, Volume XXXIII, Number 43, 24 December 1910

E. D. Mead at Prospect Union.

i Edwin D. Mead spoke on „The United States as a World Power“ in the Prospect Union, on Sunday, December 11. „We have heard much in the last few years aliout the United- States as a world power,“ he said; „it has becomo rather a fashionable phras *, and one would think from the way in which It is used In many written articles that the country began to be a world power when, a few years ago, with a vastly superior force, a few Spanish gunboats were sunk at Manila and Santiago. „That Is a very cheap view of world power and a very cheap view of the I’nlted States. The United States began to lie a world power the moment it began to be at all, and from that day to this It has been the most Influential of all powers ƒ— disseminating fre ■ and progressive institutions throughout the world. „Gladstone spoke of the constitution o.f the United States as the most remarkable document from the hand of man, and from its adoption to this hour there has hardly been a new constitution framed in all the world which lias not shown Its Impress.“ Mr. Mead spoke of the South American republics, the British colonli s and other governments to Illustrate his point. He cited American Influence In China, Japan, Turkey, and elsewhere. When Bulgaria established self-govern-ment 30 years ago, he said, her ministers were men educated in Robert College, Constantinople; at that little American centre they Imbibed the political ideas which are transforming the Balkan states. The men who represented Japan at the treaty of Portsmouth were men who were educated in Harvard. No man can estimate the future Influence of the Chinese and Japanese students in American colleges, and this Is the world power that counts. The flrst peace societies ƒ— the world were organized ƒ— Boston and New York. The Undtedi States has been, and ls at the forefront of this great movement, whose recent triumphs Mr. Mead rapidly reviewed. „We need but apply to world affairs,“ he said, „the principles which have worked so beneficently In our federal union to get precisely the kind of international organization that we need. The United States has been the prophecy and pioneer of a united world.“