An existence worthy of man for all members of society cannot be the way of life of a single privileged people, since it would be unable to establish or maintain such a state in isolation from all other peoples. Our entire development is the product of co-operation between national and international forces and the consolidation of the ties between them. Although for many people the national idea still holds sway and provides an instrument for the maintenance of political and social domination, which is possible only within national boundaries, we are already deep in internationalism.
Treaties on commerce, tariffs and shipping, the Universal Postal Union, international exhibitions, congresses on international law and measurements, other international scientific congresses and associations, international scientific expeditions, our trade and communications, notably the international congresses of working men, who are the bearers of the new era and whose moral influence made possible the first international conference for labour legislation in Berlin in the spring of 1890 at the invitation of the German Empire — all this testifies to the international character the relations between the various advanced nations are increasingly assuming despite national isolation. We speak of the world economy, as opposed to national economy, and attach more importance to the former, because the well-being and prosperity of individual nations largely depend on it. A large part of our own products is exchanged against the products of foreign countries without whom we are no longer able to exist. And just as one branch of industry is injured when another branch suffers, so the production of one nation suffers considerably when that of another is paralysed. Relations between individual countries become ever closer despite such temporary disturbances as wars and incitement of one nation against another, because they are subject to material interests which are the strongest of all. Every new highway, every improvement of a means of communication, every invention or improvement in production, which leads to a cut in the cost of goods, consolidates these relations. The ease with which direct relations are established between mutually remote countries and peoples is a new powerful factor in the chain of relations. Emigration and colonisation are additional powerful stimuli. Nations learn from each other, and each seeks to excel. Together with the exchange of material products of the most diverse kinds, there also proceeds an exchange in intellectual values, both in the original language and also in translation. The study of modern languages becomes a necessity for millions. Next to material advantages nothing contributes more towards removing antipathy and establishing cordial understanding than the grasp of the language and intellectual values of a foreign people.
The effect of this process of drawing together that is proceeding on an international scale is that countries are coming to resemble each other more and more as regards their social conditions. Among the advanced and therefore standard-setting nations this similarity is already so great that those who have learned to understand the economic structure of one nation also understand, in the main, that of all the others. The same rule applies as in Nature: where among animals of the same species the skeleton is identical in its organisation and structure, and if we possess part of such a skeleton we can in our mind's eye reconstruct the whole animal.