Manhattan Transfer

"America is in the position of taking over the receivership of the world. The great principles of democracy, of that commercial freedom upon which our whole civilization depends are more than ever at stake."

(in: John Dos Passos, "Manhattan Transfer", 1925)

"The twentieth Century will be American. American thought will dominate it. American progress will give it color and direction. American deeds will make it illustrious. Civilisation will never lose its hold on Shanghai. Civilisation will never depart from Hongkong. The gates of Peking will never again be closed to the methods of modern man. The regeneration of the world, physical as well as moral, has begun, and revolutions never move backwards."
Senator Albert J. Beveridge (1862-1927)

(in: John Dos Passos, "The 42nd Parallel", 1930 )