The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-23
FOREIGN OPINION, Or AMER
ICAN POLITICS.

Since the Chicago convention
launched VIM. ]. Bryan and an Alt
geld platform upon the people OF the
United States, nothing has been more
interesting and oftentimes amusing
than the comments the European press
has made upon the probabilities of
civil strife as an eventual result OF
campaign in which class prejudice is
called into play.
Prof. Goodwin Smith, the Canadian
annexationist, says he never saw the
Great Republic in such serious danger
as it is today, and further says If
Western violence gets possession or the
Government of the United States IL
will not be far from war. In TACT near
lv all the English writer's are inclined
TO look upon the present campaign as
the mutterings of discomfort when are
the forerunners of civil strife second
only if not greater than the struggle
of the sixties. Americans can OF course
look upon this as foreign criticism
which must be taken from whence IL
comes. While the situation in the
limited States is undoubtedly a serious
one the love for the Union has by no
means reached such low ebb that any
formidable forces can be raised 10
threaten the stability of the nation
nv armed conflict That question has
been settled, and although men may
hn1l
low wild cat schemes regarding nation
al finance, the time has gone by when
revolution except by the ballot need
be seriously feared. The ruling power
is not yet in the hands of imported
anarchists and it will not be during
the present generation.
The London Spectator took occasion
recently to state that a silver victory
i'm November will prove the dishonesty
of democracy. This remark has
called forth a storm from even the
sound money papers of the United
States who accept the honesty and 10y
atty of their opponents if not cred1tlng
them with good sense. The Spring.
field Republican says:
who is it that has made the United
States the most conservative country
in all the world as respects property
rights. if not the masses who have
shaped it's course at the polls? We
think it would be difficult to put fin
ger on a single event in the history of
the United States which proves the
desires of the masses to effect redls-
tribution of property or an uncontroll-
able craving for what does not belong
TO them-which, if it did exist, could
be acted upon at any time. Democra-
cv's faults are intellectual and not
moral. and in this democracy is as
rule not more at fault at any time on
any particular matter than good
mart of that class which affects a
monopoly of sound judgment and ade-
uuate knowledge. Morally the people
as a mass are sound. And when An
drew d. White and others like him
proclaim their distrust in the people,
and affirm an absence in them OF moral
vision, they practically deny the ex-
istence of a moral sense in men; and
this. as we see it, it is equivalent to a
denial of faith in God and moral
government of the world. That is
what the Tory sentiment of the world,
whether voiced by the organs of hered-
itary institutions in Europe or by such
men as Mr.. White in America finally
comes to-.
One enthusiastic paper goes so far as
to predict the following for the Ameri-
can Union:
Let us no longer lose any sleep over
the threats of the United States. They
are themselves on the verge of disrup
ton. Within twenty years we may see
the octopus split up into two or even
three republics, and then there will be
so much fighting between themselves
that they will have no desire to twist
the lio,'s tail or infuriate the Canadian
beaver"
To this the New York Herald replies:
isn't that delicious? So we are going
all to pieces, are we? There will not be