Los Angeles herald., 1891-01-19
MONDAY. JANUARY 10. 1891.
HAS THE UNITED STATES ANYTHING TO
FEAR FROM ENGLANDp

We have received highly colored
brochure-a sort of American Battle of
Dorking-which starts out to show how
England declared war against the United
States, knocked this country into a
cooked hat, and then exacted an indem-
nifty of ten billions of dollars, occupying,
meanwhile, the principal ports and
forts OF the country, and playing game
of miching malicho with us generally.
Vivid pictures are given of the shelling
and capture of New York, the destruc-
ton of the national capitol after the easy
capture OF the national capital, and SO on.
The purpose of this eccentric production
of hectic Imagination seems to be to
stimulate congress to build a navy and
establish notifications commensurate
with the dignity and power of the pre-
mier republic of the world. The motive
underlying this publication may be
good. The ships, ornaments and forti-
fications should be provided, but we de-
cline to accept the insane rawlings of this
plagiarist as anything but a very feeble
literary venture.
There is no doubt but that great
many people suppose that this countryis
at the mercy of Great Britain, and
believe that all that country has to do is
to declare war and take possession of
Uncle Sans domain. The surest proof
that this is not so is that England has
not done so long since. If she could
she would-you may depend ont. Her
drum beats have been truly described
as reverberating all around the world,
and there is no spot of it that she is not
willing to appropriate if she thought
she could make the transaction stick.
Is the United States, resourceful
nation of sixty-fve millions OF people,
absolutely dependent on. the for
bearance of the tight little, right
little isle? If this is SO it is, import
ant to us to know the fact.
We hardly think. so, and ior various
reasons. In the first place, as Mr..
Henry Clews pointed out in his last
bankers circular, the United States is
the richest country in the world. That
noted inancier stated q fact when he
said that there is more gold coin in this
country than in the whole of Europe.
From time immemorial, money has been
the sinews of war. A resourceful peo-
pie, like the Americans, with unlimited
money, can do miracles in the way of
improvising ornaments on sea and
land.
Fortunately for the United States,
this country declined to take part in the
congress of Paris, held in 1856, in which
the signatories to that treaty bound
themselves not to issue letters of mark.
We have therefore, in case of a war with
England, as much right to arm pri-
vateersmen as we had in the war OF
1872. England is the greatest carrier
in the world. She is absolutely depend
ent on commerce for her very existence.
She is dependent on the United States,
after all her supreme efforts to make
herself independent of us in India and
Africa, for the cotton to run her mills.
Her redundant population is dependent
upon the United States and Russia for
the breadstuffs that keep alive the vital
spark.
Her merchant marine covers thou
sand seas. A hundred privateersmen
could sweep it off the ocean in year.
Her investments are scattered over the
whole globe, and any material derange-
ment would result in loss so universal
as to be without precedent.
Supposing, for the sake of argument,
that she could shell our seaport cities,
and perhaps capture some of them?
What would that avail in the end?
They would surely be recaptured, and
the destruction of British commerce and
the continued interruption of England's
industries would be an infinitely greater
disaster. The twaddle OF exacting big
war indemnities scarcely merits atten-
tion. The American people would be
found to have the spirit OF those OF Mos
COW. They would gladly set the torch
to any city that was certain to fall into
British hands. Meanwhile, all portable
treasure would be moved into the in
terror. Every American would become
a soldier, and the Dominion of Canada
and British Columbia would be a rich
reward for our losses on the coast line.
1t is not to besupposed that American
enterprise and inventive genius would
be sleeping all this while. From har-
bors and rivers, protected by torpedoes,
would soon issue vessels that would re-
call the episode of the Merrimac and the
Monitor, in Hampton roads, during the
war OF the rebellion. The superstition
that the enormous English iron-clads
are really effective engines of war might
be dispelled early in the conflict. They
are as yet confessedly an experiment in
many respects as to offensive war at a
great distance.
Under the circumstances, the chances