JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review.Yielding to some untoward bias, they entangle themselves in words, and confound themselves in subtleties.-Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist. THE current discussion of German geopolitical writings involves the names, outlook, and reputation of certain American geographers, my own included. What was their position respecting geopolitics before general condemnation of Hitler and the Nazi program began? Did they foresee the evil consequences of German perversion of truth in the alleged new science of geopolitics which made use of the overlapping data of history, political science, and geography? It has recently been declared that American geopolitics was developed before it was taken up in Germany. The bad effect of this assertion touches more than personal or professional repute. It has given the question a national context.Geopolitics presents a distorted view of the historical, political, and geographical relations of the world and its parts. It identifies no universal force or process like gravity. It is relative to the state to which it is applied. At least so say its advocates. Its arguments as developed in Germany are only made up to suit the case for German aggression. It contains, therefore, a poisonous self-destroying principle: when international interests conflict or overlap might alone shall decide the issue. Against "geopolitical needs" democracy opposes moral rights. Let us look first at the way in which this opposition arises. THE MORAL BASIS OF DEMOCRACYAmerican democracy strives to achieve certain explicit purposes stated in a body of doctrine expressed in the first instance in our Declaration of Independence and subsequently in the Constitution with its amendments. It is at bottom the union of two principles (i) promotion of the general welfare through the consent of the governed and (2) respect for individual human rights. Doing evil things in the name of an alleged good cause is not the cornerstone of its philosophy. Democracy is an agreement upon purposes and a selection of means that a people's sense ofjustice approves. When the Reichstag in I9I4 unanimously approved the German government's program, which had involved the violation of Belgian neutrality, it was expressing its sense ofjustice and giving its moral approval. By such approval it hoped to hasten the day of victory and peace. There you have This content downloaded from 62.122.79.23 on Fri, 9 May 2014 12:10:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GEOGRAPHY VS. GEOPOLITICS 647also agreed purposes, a sense of justice, and moral approval! What was wrong with them? Democrac...
The field work upon which the report is based formed a part of a detailed investigation of the geology and water resources of the island conducted by Mr. M. L. Fuller, chief of the eastern section of the division of hydrology, assisted by Mr. Veatch, to whom was given the immediate supervision of problems relating to underground waters.The paper deals with an area in which the problems relating to underground waters are of great importance, especially as they affect city and town supplies. Great interest is manifested in such waters throughout the area, and it is thought that the report, which is the result of unusually detailed work, will prove of great value to engineers and others who may be interested in public or private supplies from underground sources.A separate report, treating the geology of the island in more detail, has been prepared by Mr. Fuller and will soon be transmitted for publication.Very respectfully,
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