Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-07-07
Living and Dying Nations.

SALISBURY, In recent speech divided
the nations of the earth into the living
and the dying. and intimated that the
strong and vigorous would in the end
absorb their weaker and less virile
Aside from the assumption that the
so-called Christian nations OF the earth
will follow
The good old rule, the simple plan,
Let him take who hath the power,
And let him keep who can,
quite as readily as did those that flour
ished and passed away before Christ
ever brought upon the earth his Cos
pei OF Peace and Goodwill to all man
kind, the speech was not of great i'm
portance. Lord Salisbury has succeed
ed in raising the question of which are
the living and which are the dying
nations of the world, and what are the
conditions conducive to national health
and longevity. No nation whose pro-
ducing classes are not prosperous can
lay claim to be In sound health or upon
a firm basis.
1t is an unwelcome truth to English
men, but it is a fact that, tested by
this standard, England is one of those
nations that exhibit most clearly evil
dences of decay. In the first place. if
we are to believe the London Standard
and New York Sun, the mercantile
policy of England has accumulated
upon her soil a population which it is
wholly unable to support. Asw have
pointed out before, she has no food
producing class, which is necessary to
national independence. Her existence
is the existence of a parasite. Her food
supply is confessedly only few months
ahead of her consumption, so that a
great naval reverse, or any calamity
that would interfere with her imL orta-
ton of food for even short time,
would bring anarchy and ruin in its
wake. She has drawn blood from the
vast population of her Indian empire
until conditions have been created that
threaten to drive her from
Southern Asia. She has exterminated
the yeomanry of her own soil, which
carried her flag to victory from Agin-
court and Crecy to the Inkerman, and
now is compelled to depend upon an
alien soldiery to defend her vital in
terests. Can any nation be regarded
as living and vigorous whose soil can
not support her people, and whose
sons cannot fight her battles?
1t is no wonder that England desires
US to become the staff of her old age.
An alliance with us would permit her
to draw upon our best blood and brain
to enable her to hold the scepter that
now trembles in her palsied grasp.
While her army and navy are filled
with men who are not English, and
her people are fed with food from 9TH
er lands, her merchant marine, the
industry which is necessary to her ex-
istence, has decreased a million tons
within the last decade.
Turning to other lands, we find con-
ditions approximating those which
operate to the disadvantage Of Eng
land. Italy has collapsed aud her
starving people use acorns and roots
to exc out miserable existence. She
is now little better than a corpse whose
blood, almost to the last drop, has been
drawn from her veins by the vampires
that are now devouring the foodpro-
ducers of the world. Spain is a bar
undiscovered hulk; Germany'5 rural
population is following in the footsteps
of that of England which compels the
German Empire to become England's
keenest antagonist in the world of
trade in order that the rapidly increas-
ing population of ner cities and towns
may live. The rural population of our
WI ~NS" LduO CLdtCS - Gn0
same way.
What has occasioned this almost I'M
iversal decay? 1t is hardly possible
that effects so similar and so general
should not originate from some central
primary source. In England a Royal
Commission OF sixteen persons-four-
teen of the members unfortunately be-
ing anarchists-was appointed to in
quire into the causes of agricultural
in that country. The four
teen enemies to civilization persisted
in laying the woes of her farmers at
the door of the gold standard. The
German farmer attributes his difficult
ties to the same source, but he is an
ass and not to be reasoned with, ex-
cept through bullets. The thoughtful
American farmer agrees with his Ger
man colaborer in the business of feed
ing the world, but he is a blatant
blatherskite whom the sight of dollar
wheat, when he has no wheat, is ex-
pected to silence. The Frenchman
says pretty much the same thing, but
he is hysterical lunatic to whom no
one must give heed. The only ones