The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-11
WITHOUT A FRIEND.


TO BE Account, For
John Clark Ridpath in Pittsburg Dis
patch.
Great Britain would not have uttered
this maudlin cry about having no
friend IL she had not for the nonce felt
the need of one. The unexpected COM
plications in the east of Asia is the
occasion of this wall from the jolly old
lioness so full of human lamb. The
march of historical forces has within
the year brought the English power
face to face with the power of Russia.
in an arena more than 10000 miles dis
tant from London.
Russia wishes to build railroads
down to the open waters of the PACING
to cross territories that are not her
own. but through which she can easily
make her way.
Great Britain does not relish the idea
that anybody except herself shall car
ry lines of railway through territories
that are not her own. She wishes TO
interdfct Russia from doing so, ana,
marvel of marvels, is not able to do N!
She does not dare to go to war, not
because, she has not the courage, but
because her national debt has become
50 great that she burst not increase IL!
This complaint is directed in particu-
lar to the United States. The United
States, says the plaintiff, ought to be
her friend, but is not. 1t Is true. then,
that on certain occasions Great Britain
stoops to remember the United States.
We may know when this phenomenon
recurs that something serious has
moved on the spirit of the lioness.
That something is always either dys-
pepsia or danger. In the present in
stance 1t is danger II our good mother
felt she We're able to bluff Russia and
to block her progress in Asia without
the support of the United States, then,
indeed, she would not have remember
ed the United States at all, much less
appealed to her for sympathy.
Let not England hay the fiattering
JUNCTION on her soul that the reasons
of the dislike cherished toward her by
other nations are the reasons which
the London Spectator has recently set
forth. Those are not the reasons at
all. Madam Britannia, history has
long memory! You have for genera
tons and centuries laid up wrath
against this day of wrath by a course
of unmitigated selfishness. which has
at last come home as an evil spirit to
the perch. You now look up and see
on the branch above you, not bird of
promise; not Athenia's owl of wisdom:
not a common shadow of the night, but
the smileless visage of that silent Ne
mesis
anced scale"
OF all this we are heartily glad. This
British wall, hollow and hypocritical.
is the most pleasing cry which has
come across the Atlantic in many a
year. That she who has been the mod
ern Rome, the tyrant of the nations,
the oppressor of the weak the mistress
OF unjust conquests, the promoter of
international crimes, the butcher Of
barbarians and robber in chief among
the nations of the world, should be
brought at last face to face with Ne
mesis and be obliged to ask for quar-
| ter under the specious plea that she
| has no friends. is a thing to commend
itself TO patriotic hope. Ii justifies the
! optimistic view of the future of man
! kind.
! England asking for a friendl When
was she ever the friend of anybody or
Z any cause save her own? Show us but
one instance in all history in which she
| has stretched out her hand to succor
| the weak, except under the motives of
| devouring those whom she succors. OF
| course, Great Britain comes to the res
| cue of the weak. 1t has long been her
| favorite method. She rescued the
| South Africans-and takes their mines
and forests and ivory. She rescues In
dia-and takes it's 400. 0o0. 900 of people.
She rescues the fellahs-in order that
| the khedive may get their crusts and
| onions to pay the interest on his bonds.
/ She rescues the free Greeks-in order
| to give them a king. She rescues the
| Irish peasants-in order to gild the
dome of st. Paul's with a 1.-THE of their
potatoes. And yet she has no friend.