Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-12-15
WEDNESDAY EVENING. DEC. Is, 1897.
MORE THAN A COINCIDENCE.

I4OAhn Ia n
The event OF the past week of most
curious interest for serious people was
beyond a doubt the exhibition OF
German temper, with regard to the
United States, and of German methods
of enforcing a program where the
power of the emperor cannot be with
stood. The debate, in the reichstag in.
viting European combination to check
''American presumption 10 economic
matters was bur further proof OF a
hostility TO the United States which it
is foolish for our people to try to
conceal from themselves, is felt by the
governing class ia every monarchy of
Europe. That this feeling should exist
is perfectly Ineligible. The doctrines
OF republicanism are intrinsically an.
tagonislc TO those OF divine right for
monarchs. The t~endepcies of repub
licanism are opposed to legalized caste
and class. privileges. The diplomacy of
repnbllcanism u too direct and brusque
for the delicate sensibilites of the
courts OF e Irope, in wnich language is
used TO conceal thought and the art Of
polite prevaricalion is most highly es-
teemed for its utilities. When, added
to these disqulliications for winning
the good Will of monarchical Europe,
Ia the new off snso on the part of the
United States Of being able to under
sell European agriculturists and
European manufacturers in all the
markets of the world, it will be seen
that this country is regarded as a
malignant intruder, whose career of
disturbance should be sImmarily end
ed, ifthere is any way of doing that.
Very naturally it is the hot headed
young man who presides over the
German Empire, who would take the
shortest cut and make the quickest
piece OF business out of this situation.
The debates in the reichstag very
fairly reflected his sen iments. They
seem to be 10 accord, too, more or less.
with those of Bismarck. The hated
Monroe doctrine has given rise t. pre-
svlous expressions of a like de-ire to
stop American presumption. The
idea seems to prevail indiff arently in
the imperial mind, and to some extent
in the reichstag, that everything and
everybody on this side the Atlantic can
be ciassed under the one heading OF
American-used half as a term of
reproach-snd that they are rather an
%intruding lot at that. The people of
the United States, of Mexico, of Cuba,
OF iyti, are all American together;
and it is rather to be suspected that
when the emperor M ide his stupid and
contemptuous boast of the way his
boys, on the training ship, disciplined
the Haytians. he was not averse to
having it understooi that Uacle Sam
might take notice from what happened
to President Sam. :
Butt II more explosive, the German
emperor-and those who reject his feel
ings in the reichstag are moi a whit d
less friendly to our republic and its I
political and economic consequences
than the like ruling classes 10 Great )
Britain, Italy OF SPAN. Even in =
which in many respects is a
republic only in name, there are too y
frequent explosions Of hostility to the =
I nited States to pass unnoticed. Il is /,
merely the confidence Of ignorance =
which fails to observe this feeling of
'ealousy, every day intensifying. II Is 4
,ure blindness not to see hat the dsy !,
nay come when, in fighting for the Il
and manufactures which now
afford a to so many q
4 their struggling millions, one or =
'0Es 0' these European nations viii >,