The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-03-22
FAVORED NATION
British Review" Saws
It's Uuited States.
Americans Can Do Things Others
Cannot-HenCe the
Wall.

ish Review has been forwarded to this
paper for publication:
The great nations of the civilized
world are the British, the French. the
German, the Italian, the Austrian. the
Russian, the Dutch; the Japanese are
iards, Turks and Chinese may for the
moment be left out of the category.
There is only one great nation to add
to these-the American-and we have
only to consider for little to see in
what peculiar relation the American
people stand toward all others. Am
orleans as individuals and the United
States as a Government are the spoilt
children of civilization. The express
sion is not used in any hostile sense.
Spelling" is often very good for chill
dren; it brings them out, and gives
them an ease in society and a power of
self-asertion which a naturally diff
dent boy or girl will never attain if
treated on more Spartan principles.
But isn't the fact itself certain enough?
There is no diffidence in the American,
certainly. But there is a tacit sort of
conspiracy among other nations to.
give him a license which none of them
would allow to any of the other ma
tons. In conversation, in society, the
American man and woman may ques-
ton even our dearest beliefs, overlook
our most rooted prejudices, outrage our
most sacred conventions, set at naught
our etiquette. Nobody is angry-when
Americans do this. The grumblers in
France and Germany who abuse John
Bull for his bad taste and his ill-be-
havior when travelling are silent when
Uncle Sam does much worse. 1t is not
merely that they think he knows no
better; they-begin to doubt if he may
not be in the right At any rate, he
doesn't matter. The Americans are
privileged.
The American Government has a
similar license. We have. only to re-
member the way our own Government
treats the United States to realize this.
But if Great Britain is supposed to
have motherly regard, and therefore
a specially friendly disposition toward
our so-called Anglo-Saxon kinsfolk-
most of whom are not Anglo-Saxons
the tendency to give the United
States a position apart is to be seen
just as much in its relations with other
governments. The obvious reason is
that America has proclaimed her alb
stention from a foreign policy" and
that foreign countries do not come
into collision with her in their own
foreign affairs. But the fact remains
that both Great Britain and Europe
generally stand" things from the
United States Government that would
provoke a serious rupture as between
any of the Europe nations them
selves. Take the Kelley dispute with
Austria for instance. In 1885 President
Cleveland nominated to the Embassy
at Rome a Mr.. Kelley, whom King
Humbert declined to receive because
he had been notorious for an attack
upon Victor Emmanuel. Mr.. Bayard,
then Secretary of State, transferred
Mr.. Kelley to Vienna. But Count Kali
noky also had objections. Mr.. Keiley's
wife was a Jewess, and Jews are not
appreciated in Austria. COrnt Kalnoky
accordingly asked that Mr.. Kelley he
sent somewhere else. What happened?
Mr.. Bayard lectured the Austrian Gov
eminent as if it were a fourthform
schoolboy. Mr.. Kelley was an Ameri
can citizen. and as such good enough
for anybody; and the United States
believed in religious liberty, and if
Jews were good enough for Pre-: dent
Cleveland they were fifty times too
&c cd for an emperor. If Lord Salisbury
had said these things it is difficult to
imagine the results. But Austria took
it quite calmly from America 1t Oily
meant that for some time there was
no American Minister in Vienna.
Take another instance, which shows
the United States Government doing
a thing which has only just called
down on ourselves the censure of tie
whole continent. We have had our
Jameson raid but the United States
has had its Jameson raid and nobody
has said word about it. In what re-
spect, except the absence of any public
outcry, does the action Of Mr.. Stevens
in Hawaii in 1893 differ from Dr. ia
l.
Stevens, the American Minister at Ho-
nolulu, organized a revolution against
Queen Liliuokalani, obtained marines
and sailors from the American war
ship in the harbor. occupied the town,
deposed the Queen, and proclaimed a
Republic. 1t is just as if DR.. Jameson
had not been stopped at Krugersdorp,
but had marched into Johannesburg
safely and made a successful revolu-
ton. What has happened? Did the
United States repudiate Mr.. Stevens
Not at all. President Cleveland did his
best to restore the Queen, but Con-
gress defeated him, and President Dole
and his friends still rule Republic in
Hawaii. and by the latest accounts a
pretty mess they are making of 1t. But
the point is that this upset of friend
" sovereign was effected by a respon-
sible American Minister, and without
word of protest, or reprOach, or him
drance from the other nations concern
ed in the prosperity or the status quo
of Hawaii Let us imagine. if we can,