taste is shown by American publishers in to climb over it; the "back of beyond" the binding of their books than is generally draws him like a magnet.

to be found in Europe. American women I cannot help thinking it will be so with are to-day dressed with greater elegance America also. Of course I know the objecthan any women outside Paris. And this tions well. The Constitution makes no proleads me to my second reflection. Unless vision for the government of alien races in my eye deceives me, the race of American remote lands; there is no class of trained women is growing taller and stronger and administrators; the governorship of the first handsomer. During the twenty-two years colony will go to the man who "fixed the I have visited the United States I have fences" in the last election; colonial rivalry noticed this gradual development. Greatly with foreign nations will bring entanglement daring, I express the conviction that in the in their quarrels; army and navy must be world no gathering of more beautiful women kept great; they will cost vast sums, and can be seen than in the halls of the Waldorf their existence will be temptation to use Hotel any afternoon between five and six. Columbia is putting on beauty as a garment. When her voice becomes as attractive as her figure and her features, she shall be called Helen, and, like her of Troy, confer immortality with a kiss.

them.

These are strong arguments and may prevail. But the answers are as strong. The Constitution is not a law of nature: man made it and man can mend it; the imperative necessity for capable and honest men may be the death-blow to the system which distributes embassies and legations and consulates as political rewards; the war has brought America into. sharp-cut relations with foreign Powers, and

already building, and the American people will insist upon the formation of an army large enough, for instance, to avoid such a humiliation as having to wait all summer to collect and train a force strong enough to fight Spain in Cuba. It is like the antinomies of Kant: the contradictory propositions can both be proved. Some minds will be convinced by the one set of arguments, others by the other. But in the end, from all I have seen and heard, I fancy the subtle

In "America in War Time," however, there are stranger things by far than these. Unless all signs fail, a vital modification has come over the country; a new era has opened; the great Republic has suffered a sea-change. nothing can alter this; a strong navy is This has not been deliberate. No statesman foresaw and willed it. Possibly a majority of the people do not desire it. The gods do not consult mortals. If the "Maine" had not been blown up, there would have been no war. If the Cuban insurgents had been as strong as was supposed, the war might have stopped with the freedom of Cuba. If Admiral Dewey had not been forced to make a new base for his fleet, he would not have smashed the Spanish squadron. If he had not smashed it, and thus become responsible temptation of empire, the magic magnetism for the islands, he would not have needed reinforcements. If ten thousand American troops had not been sent to him, there would have been no question of keeping the Philippines. A chain of events, forged by invisible hands, has drawn the American people to ask themselves whether their destiny restricts them forever within the limits of their own continent; why they should not appear among the Powers of the world in the coming struggle for the East, seize new markets for themselves, and set their flag over far-off lands to allure their pioneers and merchants to fresh fields. To such a quesAn American colonial policy will have some tion men of our race find instinctively but results which have not yet all been considone answer. It is the sap of the tree push- ered. "Blood is the price of admiralty,” ing resistlessly up in spring. To Frenchman and many a brave life will be spent in the and German the founding of colonies is a getting. getting. When the war with China broke mechanical, state-fostered, theoretically- out, Japan sent 5,000 soldiers to the Pescajustified operation. It is in an Englishman's blood; he cannot see a sea without desiring to cross it, or a mountain without wanting

of the Orient, the Drang nach Osten, will prevail. It is like the hypnotism of the East over the traveler; once let its fever touch your blood, and you are enchained as the tide to the moon.

"Whoso has tasted the honey-sweet fruit from the stem of the lotus

Never once wishes to leave it, and never once seeks to go homeward;

There would he stay, if he could, content with the eaters of lotus,

Plucking and eating the lotus, forgetting that he was returning."

dores, islands certainly not more trying to health than the Philippines. Thirty of these were killed in fight, and exactly 1,050 were

66

effective when the war was over. The re-
mainder had either died or been invalided
home. And the Japanese soldier is accus-
tomed to an Eastern summer and Eastern
food. Hong Kong was known for many
years as the
grave of regiments." Its
cemetery, called "Happy Valley," reads
to-day like a military directory. British
troops there are paraded every morning for
"cholera-belt inspection," and any man
found without that essential part of costume
in the tropics gets "three days C.B." (con-
finement to barracks). When I was in Manila,
an epidemic of cholera was raging; a hun-
dred people were dying a day. The Spaniards,
crying Colerico!" stuffed their handker-
chiefs into their mouths and turned their
faces to the wall as a stricken man was car-
ried to hospital in a hammock slung on a
pole, covered with a sheet. One of the
Chinese firemen of the "Zafiro" (now an
American auxiliary vessel) died just before
we sailed. And then the typhoons! Be-
tween Manila and Hong Kong is the most
typhoon-haunted sea in the world. But it is
needless to dwell on horrors. Such things
have never deterred Englishmen, nor will they
deter Americans. There is yellow fever in
Florida; there are blizzards in Dakota; and I
have been told that the climate of Arizona
leaves something to be desired in summer.
Besides, the Philippines are an inexhaustible
storehouse of tropical wealth. They are also
the home of the most marvelous orchids in
the world; and American hothouses will soon
blaze with unimagined splendor, while Ameri-
can beauty will lavish the tenderest nursing
on the Philippine pioneer who brings her in
his pallid and shaking hands a mysterious
garment of jusi, woven silk and pine-fibre,
the most diaphanous and exquisite fabric in
creation. And that olive-skinned mestiza I
saw, half emigrated Spaniard and half native
Indian, with her loose jet-black hair eighty
inches long, how interesting she would be as
a social attraction-or an advertisement!

one of the score of factories in Manila turns
out 38,000,000 a year? The Cigarette Trust
must make haste to deploy its skirmishers.

Of all the results, however, big and little,
of Philippine annexation, one stands out in
sharp relief, dwarfing all the rest-the in-
evitable change in the relations of the United
States and Great Britain. If America an-
nexes the Philippines, a distinct and formal
understanding with England is imperative
for her, and certain. This certainty is only
perceived yet by few people in this country,
but in Europe every statesman sees it at a
glance. The Far Eastern question has super-
seded the Near Eastern question-just as
Lord Rosebery prophesied that it would as
the greatest international problem and the
focus of the keenest coming struggle. I have
no space here to set forth its vast complica-
tions; but, in a rough phrase, one may say
that the fate of China has now taken the
place of the fate of Turkey as the great
question of the future.
Be- question of the future. France is trying to
put a commercial fence round the Southern
provinces; Russia has already "jumped "
Manchuria and will soon close it to other
nations by a prohibitive tariff, if she is
not prevented; Germany has demanded and
secured "exclusive privileges" in one large
province; Japan has ambitions so wide-reach-
ing and world-affecting that she has not ven-
tured yet to hint at them in public; Eng-
land alone desires to keep China as it is-a
country raising its revenue by a moderate
tariff, developing as rapidly as may be in
commercial enterprise, affording to the whole
world, on equal terms, a market of 350,000,-
000 people. Now, these views are all in
conflict among themselves, and, together with
the score of smaller but still important issues,
they keep the diplomatists busy to avoid a
breach of the peace. As soon as the United
States becomes possessed of a country in the
Far East, situated in the center of traffic, so
to speak, of 116,000 square miles and over
seven millions of inhabitants, she takes a
hand in the game, with a big stake upon the
table. When the next diplomatic bout begins,
she will be involved. However much she
may desire it, she will not be able to remain
a spectator. Her policy is settled for her
beforehand. It would be fatal to her inter-
ests for China to become Russian and French
and German. She must try to keep China
for the Chinese. But that is British policy
also. Therefore America and England will
find themselves shoulder to shoulder, and, as
soon as the first tug comes, they will mutu-
ally define their attitude once for all. That

Another result of annexation has apparently escaped attention. When the Stars and Stripes float over the land which Magellan discovered and the city which Legaspi founded, presumably the native products will enter the United States free of duty. In that case the cheap cigar, and to some extent the more expensive cigar, of Cuba will disappear, and Key West may retire from business. Of Manila cigars, when I was there a few years ago, the yearly output was 140,000,000, besides tobacco. And what will become of the American cigarette, since

1

will be the beginning of the entente. It is the first step which costs.

Here is another reflection. The day on which Great Britain and the United States sign a convention specifying their common purpose in the Far East will be the day of the salvation of China. We shall have saved a nation from destruction. England alone will not be able to do this certainly not under her present government. No force short of the determination of all who speak English would be great enough to stop the impending deluge. Now, to save a nation is a righteous thing.

ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said ship-canal"? Or that, in order that this common policy might be reached, Great Britain, in the words of a distinguished American historian, ex-assistant Secretary of State, freely resigned "an important military, naval, and political position on the Isthmus at a time when the relative strength of the two Powers was very different from what it is now"? The repudiation of one treaty would be but a poor basis upon which to base negotiations for another.

The truth is that a foreign alliance has hitherto been so remote from American policy One understanding will lead to another. that the whole question of alliance has not The question of open markets will not be yet been fully grasped by many people in this limited to China. It may well arise in Africa country. When Mr. Chamberlain made his before long. Peace is "the greatest of speech the other day, a leading New York British interests," but it is the greatest newspaper dismissed it with the remark that of American interests also; and our two Mr. Chamberlain's intention was obviouscountries may decide to join hands in making he desired to conclude an alliance with the war more difficult and less profitable. The United States in order that American men Nicaragua Canal means either a formal and ships might help England to fight France agreement or a quarre!. I am somewhat for West Africa. And the writer appended alarmed by the airy tone taken by the serious to this sagacious observation some highly American press in discussing this matter. edifying moral comments. Until I saw this The New York "Tribune," for example, I would not have believed that any responreasons as follows concerning the ClaytonBulwer treaty:

"That treaty has long been more honored in the

breach than in the observance. Both governments have repeatedly expressed a wish to be rid of it. And it has long been tacitly agreed that dual building of the canal is impracticable, and that this Nation shall be free to do the job alone just as soon as it can sum mon up enough enterprise and energy. Use of it in time of war would naturally be granted to Great Britain, just as the use of the Suez Canal is granted to

us.

Of course we should not leave it open to any Power hostile to us, and, of course, Great Britain will not be hostile to us. And it is by no means inconceivable that our interests and those of Great Britain would be so nearly identical that we should be constrained to close it to any power hostile to her. For a war waged against Great Britain in American waters could scarcely avoid concerning us very deeply, and that in a manner that would lead us to sympathize with

Great Britain and to make common cause with her."

I quote this, not because I have any intention or opportunity of discussing the whole matter here, but simply as a proof that the seriousness of this question is not fully appreciated by American writers. Who would imagine, for instance, after reading this passage from the "Tribune," that there exists a treaty of the most solemn and binding character between the United States and Great Britain, dated April 19, 1850, Article I. of which says that "the Governments of the United States and Great Britain hereby declare that neither the one nor the other will

sible writer could have been so pyramidally ignorant. The editorial writer in question evidently had not the slightest notion of the principles upon which great nations arrive. at common understandings. Apart from the fact that there was quite certainly going to be no war about West Africa, since France would not rush upon destruction by trying to fight England single-handed, no nation dreams of either asking or conceding treaty promises such as this writer imagined. The offensive treaty is obsolete. A complete alliance might be signed, sealed, and delivered between America and England, yet England might fight twenty wars without America being concerned in the least. I was asked the other day whether an Anglo-American treaty would bind the United States to help England if Russia invaded India. You might as well ask if a life-insurance implies a marriage contract. I replied: "In the first place, England is abundantly able to take care of herself if Russia invades India; and if she is not, then she has ceased to be a first-rate Power, and has no right to invite you to make a treaty upon equal terms."

Treaties between great nations are made ad hoc-with reference to specific existing interests. Here, for example, would almost certainly be the first article of any AngloAmerican treaty: England binds herself under no circumstances to seek or obtain

any extension of territory upon the two American continents or the adjacent islands, except by amicable agreement with the United States; the United States binds itself I fear to be thought to exhibit political sympathies if I am grammatical and say** themselves") to allow Great Britain the undisturbed possession of all American territory she occupies at the present time. This is the Monroe doctrine, of course; both nations accept it, and would, I presume, sign such an article instantly. Other articles might settle the relations of the two countries regarding the Nicaragua Canal; arrange for the arbitration of all disputes; and lay down a common policy with respect to China, to be enforced, if necessary, by common naval and military action. Even then the great point of all would not have been touched.

and common patriotism alike dictate a common understanding, similarly remote in its application, but equally real. What American or British principle would be modified, what interest endangered, what needless danger incurred, even what legitimate quarrel affected, by an agreement that if either nation were the object of an unprovoked attack by two or more Powers simultaneously, the other should make common cause with her? Such an agreement would definitively bar either Power from the aid of the other for any war of offense, or even from help if attacked without provocation by a single Power. Single enemies have no terrors for either of us. The deepest interests of liberty and civilization demand that each nation shall be able to go about its work in the world, secure that the forces of darkness cannot prevail against it. The All the people who speak English have one Governor of Washington State recently devital and predominant interest: that the clared that he was against any alliance principles of their own civilization-the "except with the omnipotent God." Uncivilization which they alone of the nations less our Anglo-Saxon religious conceptions possess, namely, the principles of the rights and convictions are all wrong, such an agreeof the individual man, freedom of speech, ment, for such an end, would be one upon thought, and action; their common heritage which He would smile. There is not, I am of law and government should not perish confident, an American-there is not, I am from the earth. One little fact will show certain, an Englishman, who does not believe the trend of events in Continental Europe: that neither nation would allow the other to the first act of the new German parliament, be crushed by a hostile combination. This if the elections go as everybody anticipates, being so, why on earth should we not bring will probably be to disfranchise a consider- to the relations of all nations that stability able proportion of the German voters. In and that peace which would flow from the other words, an extension of autocracy. A announcement of the greatest and most coalition of Powers to destroy England would righteous compact that the world has ever be formed if its hopes of success were but a known? little brighter. And do Americans realize that the foreign ministers of Germany and Austria, speaking officially from their seats in parliament, have both alluded in terms of warning to the possible necessity of a Continental European league against the growing danger of American influence and American commerce? Americans know, of course, that only the action of England prevented a united European demand that the United States should localize the war with Spain. By the ruling classes of Russia and Germany the principles of American and British government are hated and feared, and these two Powers drag the rest of Europe after them. France is a free republic in nothing but name. The "Temps," the most serious French newspaper, sneered the other day at what it called the "acute fit of AngloSaxonism." The danger to Anglo-Saxon ideals may be remote, but it exists beyond a shadow of doubt. Common sense, therefore,

The time is not yet ripe, that is clear. Other Powers will exert themselves to the utmost to prevent it, that is certain. England is ready; it is only American opinion which has to mature. And America, if I may say so without offense, should realize that England is to-day the greatest of the world Powers; that there is not a nation in Europe that would not jump at an alliance with her for common ends; that she is hated precisely because she will not enter into any such compact; that her sympathy with America has intensified this hatred; that she will not come suing for anything; that she can offer as much as anybody can give her; and that she does not wish America to take one step that is not dictated, first, by American interests, and second, by a desire to promote the interests of mankind.

These are the thoughts suggested by
America revisited in war time.
Washington, June 1, 1898.