The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-29
OUR OPINION OF ENGLAND
MARKED CHANGE THAT THE WAR
WITH SPAIN HAS BROUGHT FORTH.
It's Exhibition Among Public Men in
Washington-Recog OF. the
Inevitable world Contest.
Letter in New York Post.

face, forward march' order which the Span
ish war has apparently called is so sudden
as to be almost bewildering. Before the war
we looked down with contempt upon the
outside world in general, and upon England
in particular, because that was the part of
the outside world we saw most, and hence
she came to typify all that we thought was
Objectionable in the outer darkness. Con-
gress has always felt that America could
single-handed lick" all the world; there
was no need of our taking the ordinary pre-
cautions, or of developing any friendships
among the nations. We could go ahead and
do everything we pleased, and in the end
all would be well.
But brush al arms with a weak, sew
enth-rate monarchy, worn out by colonial
rebellions and paralyzed by domestic dis
cord, is teaching us that we are not SO
mighty as we had supposed. and that for
eign complications might be at least imag-
ined which would prove decidedly distress
ing. Not since 1888 have we fought in
earnest a European power. Hence, the pres
ent war is seemingly one of discovery, and
we are coming to realize that among these
outside nations there is a choice. With some
we can be friends, and the war is showing
us the basis of these preferences. If Wash
is that America is coming into it's own in
sthe worlds relationships. Before the war
we were sufficient unto ourselves. This, at
least, in debates running through years has
seemed to be the opinion of Congress.
Persons who have long looked forward to
a closer sympathy between the two great
nations which hold in their hands so large
a share of the hope of human liberty are
dazed by the ripening, as it were in night,
of a strong political sentiment in the same
direction. So rapid has been the ripening
that the real friends of the idea are appre-
hensive that it may not last. Nations like
men, are towards in the dark; even shad-
ow SO light as a Spanish war may make tim
id our professional braggarts, and when that
alarm passes old conditions may return
However that may be, to-day the heart of
washington is warm towards England. Our
statesmen seem to realize that in the ineVi-
table world-contest between the Saxon and
the Slav we belong with the Saxon, and that
there is a patriotism of race as well as of
country which in the long run America
cannot forget.
BELLICOSE WISHES.
But this is a great change-a momentous
awakening in Washington opinion. For years
the fixed epitnet by which England has been
known in the Senate is Our Traditional
Foe" Only last year New England con-
gresham remarked that the best thing that
could happen would be for some great ma
ton to whip England, and he hoped that
Russia would do it. He also predicted that
England's downfall was only a question of
time, and short time at that. During the
Venezuela excitement, it seemed as if the
approval which the Cleveland policy found
here was due not so much to any regard for
territorial interests of the South American
republic, or any enthusiasm for the new
Monroeisn, but rather to a desire to hit
England a crack and so get even for past
offenses. One treasury clerk was heard to
declare with ponderous emphasis that he
hoped we should go to war with England
and of course would whip her-because
English people who visited Washington and
went about the department were very dis
agreeable, and made sighting references to
Washington and the things they saw here.
An English editor had been overheard to
say that the only things the London papers
ever printed from this country were lynch
ngs and silver bills, and race guilty of
such ISLANDERS the treasury clerk wanted to
see moved down in battle. If England Of
Tended the North during our civil war, she
certainly failed to win over the South. Dan
iel and Morgan and Mills have outranked
the jingoeS of the North in denouncing her,
and Mills even expressed his dissatisfaction
with the settlement of the Venezuelan queS-
ton by arbitration declaring that we should
not arbitrate it, but rather decide the true
line and put in an American army to hold
it. How universally England was disliked
in this capital six months ago, apparently
among all classes of people, representing all
sections, was shown by the defeat of the ar
bitration treaty, even after it had been so
changed by amendments as to be almost
meaningless.
PLEASED WITH ENGLAND.
1t is too much to suppose that the SYM
pathy of England for the United States in
this Spanish war accounts for all the sur
face change of Washington sentiment. And
yet we hear nothing now of the Traditional
Foe nonsense. and on every side there is a
tendency to applaud England and to rejoice
n bpr of haf ale
war may accomplish for good or evil, it
has certainly awakened the American peo-
pie to the notion that there are other ma
tons and governments which, even if we
do not want them as friends, may be in
convenient as enemies. For a century we
have been SedulouSly cultiVating the idea
that we were q whole world by ourselves
that we needed no assistance and little COM
merce, and that American ingenuity and
prowesS were more than match for any
combination in Christendom. England
typifed the rest of the world Two-thirds
of our trading has been with her, and
diplomacy has been largely concerned with
Canadian, and hence British questions Be-
cause SO. prominently in the foreground
heathen England has come in for a large
part Of the distrust felt for all the throng.
Most OF the civilized world transacts its
yet so prominent is England's part in our
world trade that Jones, of Arkansas, had
come to identify the gold standard with
England. and it was against the tyranny
of the British gold standard" that Bryan
urged his followers to rebel, and Lodge
sought to discriminate against her goods.
The one great argument for the silver dol
lar has been that we might have a strictly
American monetary system and if seven
times six made forty-two in England. that
was abundant reason for our declaring that
seven times six by the American system
made forty-seven. While all the nations of
Europe are eager TO push their factory
products into markets, it is England
that we have heard most about and to
overcome the covetous zeal of her trades
men has been our constant endeavor
OUR BEST FRIEND.
But it has never been possible for a mo-
ment to examine the attitude Of the nations
of Europe toward us without seeing that
by comparison at least, England was our
greatest frield. She is the only one to whom
we can sell our goods unhampered; the eff
forts of Germany to drive us sout of her
markets are familiar and exasperating. 1t
goes without saying that it is England,
which has the same institutions and ideals
in the world and is working out the same
civilization as ourselves. AS Ambassador
Eustis. of French descent himself, declared
on his return from Paris that, although
France was republic and England mon
archy, it was with England and not France
that our resemblanceS and affinities were
greatest The Dreyfus and lola trials have
fortunately given the American people a
more recent illustration of what civil liberty