The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-26
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions of the Leading Journals
Tpon Carrent Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
ASIAN SPECULATIONS.

ASIAN SHECULAIlONS.
From the " y. Tribune
There is an old story that commerce is a
liyilizer; vet in spite of our confidence that
The world grows blunderingy better, we are
bompelled to repeat for the hundredth time
Shat not barbarism alone but our vaunted
civilization, is an aggressor The mission of
our conquerors, sighed an aged Faldr, ''is to
ruin and defame us Nena Sahib said that the
palm of barbarity did not belong to the dusky
East Indians, but to the white and civilized
English and too well we remember how, after
stirring up a Tartarus of blue fire among
their Oriental brethren, the British authori-
ties forced themselves to fight hell with the
devils favorite weapons. What our own
special savages have to say of civilized mean
ness is in a measure inspired by fire.
water and provoked by swindling:
but we have now to do with the
East and not with the West. Why is
it that the Chinaman says in his pigeon-Eng-
liSh, "Englishman is great shop-leeper, and
squeezes us, if not because some breath of
Indian fame has been waited over to ''far
Cathay' and some aggressive Englishmen
along with it? Russia has been tanning her
Kirghiz hordes with fire and sword, and her
reward is in silk, deserts. and robbers; but the
brute blind power of the Cossack keeps on in
its terrible destiny of torturing things into
shape. Frenchmen and Americans have a
better reputation over in the East. The
former, according to the Chinese, are good
soldiers and the latter do everything in good
style-thanks partly to Minister Burlingames
practical observance of a few of the ordinary
maxjms of Confucian philosophy, aud Of
Christian good sense.
Now what are the state and prospects of
Asian civilization, and, especially, what is our
relation to it? The Russians have had real
trouble in Iurllistan, even as far as Tashkend,
but what with their arms and the railroad
they promise to build from the Caspian to
the Aral and still beyond, they threaten to
make good the prediction of the London
Times, that the present generation will see
not only Samarcand but the whole of the
khanats of Khokan, Bokhara, and Khiva
added to the Czardom, and it's influence, if
not its power, extended over ''those obscure
regions of Chinese Toorkstan which lie
north of the English dependency of Cash
mere. Afghanistan remains the Belgium
of the East, and the leading English and
Russian papers profess, not without shade of
doubt. their content that it shall remain so,
and Russian Asia and British India continue
friendly rivals in dominion. Holland, with
Java the Moluccas and other islands, France
with lower Cochin China and her Indian sta
tions; Spain, with her Philippines Portugal
with Macao and the Island of Goa-all these
powers have foothold in Asia, and some of
them in very valuable and fertile spots. Is
it readily possible, and is it worth while for
Americans to step in at the eleventh hour
among these Eastern adventurers Mr..
Cesare Moreno, who seems to be
qualified by remarkable travel in
the East to offer an opinion upon
the subject, thinks it is. He advocates the
acquisition, not by force but by treaties, of
naval stations among the rich islands of spice,
in ia Arplinplnnn
and argues that, with a station thereabout, we
would not have had to lament certain dam
ages inflicted in eastern waters by the Ala
bama American enterprise, he believes,
could easily obtain an opening in Siam
through favor of a friendly king, and by navi-
eating its great rivers, and making docks and
canals, come to prosperous familiarity with
very rich country, and be in fair
way of exploring the yet virgin regions
above Siam and Cambodia. Once established
in Siam, the New World adyenturerS could
reach the Chinese market with their crops of
rice and opium sooner than those old mOnOpO-
lists the East Indians Tobacco might be
added TO our trade as a relief from opium.
S'Who knows, asks Mr. Moreno, after touch
ing upon the saving of voyage to be effected
by the SueZ Caual, that the cutting of a
canal through the Malay Peninsula will not
also be attempted in order to save the round
Our expedients to make fair competition
with England in China are, first South-Asian
settlements for the agricultural produce re-
quired by the Chinese second, the forestall-
ing of the English in the Chinese market.
But who could venture to say that in any near
time the country which we might pioneer to-
day could compete with an empire which Is
the wonder of the world England is anxious
that India shall be spanned with railroads, to
stimulate and cheaper her cotton-growing
Russia. for the sake of her silk and cotton
trade, would abrdge the journey between
Europe and China in the same way. With
these giants at work, what ready chance re-
mains even for those who built the Pacific
Railroad? Great possessions we may not have
but at all events, we may win a comfortable
trade The East India telegraph, in which
American capitalists are largely Interested, il
a good overture to our better acquaintance
with the East and when Americans shall have
built Chinese railroads as well, we shall fee
that our mission in Asia has begun.
TOIIN OTrTNNV AnANTG' CDETnJ