We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2025
The War of Europe is bringing us to a test of our international sense.
We must begin to apply international sense to our diplomacy; but we must also begin to apply it to our business.
We need just now all the international sense we can summon; we need it to grasp the extraordinary opportunities which the war will develop.
Of all these extraordinary opportunities to give the best of us, and receive value in return, none will be greater than that offered by Russia.
“But you Americans have no international sense,” said a Scotchman in Petrograd to me. He has been sent out from England since the beginning of the war to make studies of future commercial opportunities in Russia, and he has worked so well his way into the confidence of official Russia that he is now an employee of the Russian Government in the work of collecting and arranging confidential economic statistics - almost a secret-service agent of Commerce.
He thrust his hands into his pockets and stared out the window at the regiments of soldiers drilling on the public square beneath the gray skies. He went on: “I wonder whether you Americans will ever develop that sense. You receive more immigrants than any other nation, but you know nothing of the hearts and souls of the lands from which they come. The English are stubborn enough in their self-satisfied content with their own manners and language and customs, but they are skilled inter-nationalists compared with you Yankees. And this is really your era. You can make more and better goods for the world markets - and for Russia - than any other nation in the world. Germany had the trade, but lost it. The rest of us are crippled. Russia will bound forward after this war. She is the one country needing development - almost a virgin field. But whatever you may be at home, in world salesmanship you are terrible duffers. Russia? My dear fellow, Russia is the Biggest Possibility in the World. But you won't see it. You Americans have no international intellect.”
Have we?
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
