The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-12
Reware OF Entangnng AlIIsnce..

fensive and defensive alliance with her
is not only amazing-it is radically i'm
pudent. Nations which make such ar
engagements with each other in good
faith have always some common inter-
est to promote and protect If that
can be said as to Great Britain and
America we are ready TO resign the
privilege Of speaking to the American
public on any subject Whatsoever.
OF course, we must say all this with
the reservation that certain persons
in control of our national affairs for
some years are very much under the
domination of influences in London,
and are therefore practically British in
their tendencies. 1t is true that they
would subordinate any and every
American interest or ambition to the
views Of their British masters; but this
truth does not apply to the mass of
our citizenship. g,a
We ought to distinctly understand
what lies at the bottom of this strange
and outwardly unaccountable alliance
between an infinitesimal number of our
countrymen and a foreign power. 1t
is that a great many of our leading
trusts and other corporations have
their principal proprietary in England
and, therefore, exert all of their po-
tential political influence in the Brit
ish interest. When Lord Salisbury
thinks ii a good time to make an active
fight for an arbitration treaty, for an
alternative arrangement for action
against Russia, or to prevent national
aid TO the Nicaragua Canal, he has
only to send around to Lombard Street
and get from there the bell-wether OF
the golden flock. That individual in
five minutes can cable instructions to
his American agents, who are the chief
campaign creditors of the Hanna Adj
ministration, and secure from them
the whole force of the Republican or
ganization for anything desired. In
this way our Government under
Cleveland and under Mckinley, has
been made subservient to the interests
and designs of the Rothschilds, and
others in their following, who dictate
most of the British policy, and nearly
all of the international policy OF the
Western European nations.
We need not, therefore. be surprised
at the enthusiasm with which the idea
of a formal British alliance against
Russia has been received in official cir
cles and among Our best business in
terests," as Mr. Mckinley often terms
the bond sharks and the trusts which
infeSt America We are almost in
clined to shed the tear of sympathy for
Hanna and the gang when they
learned. yesterday, that Russia and
France would regard anything like
British alliance" as an unfriendly act
But We are equally compelled to ex-
press our delight.
Anything approaching alliance be-
tween this country and England, es-
| pecially if its motive were hostility to
| Russia, would be repugnant to the
| great majority of American people.
Great Britain is, and always has been,
| our enemy: sometimes openly, some
times secretly, but always our enemy,
! How could ii be otherwise? Our in
| dustrial and commercial development
is a standing menace to English trade
! supremacy. Every year we make new
| encroachments. Our prairies have de-
stroyed English agriculture. Our coal
mines and steel plants are making an
cient ruins of similar works in the
| United Kingdom. Constantly we are
solving the problem of economy in
textile production by calling manu-
featuring establishments within sight
| of the fields which grow their raw ma
| terial. In every way we are bringing
the day closer at hand when the pos
sibilities of British competition with us
win be no longer possibilities, but only
memories.
To cap all this we are going to build
ditch from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific. We are going to make it an
| American canal and fortify and defend
| it as such. Every man of affairs
| knows what that involves. 1t necessi-
tates the conclusion that, in the course
| Of a few decades after the beginning
Of operation, the crown of cosmic
| commercial supremacy must pass from
Great Britain to America.
To avert or to minimize such an in
evitable result has been the study o,
British craftsmanship and diplomacy
since the time when few thousand
dollars, judiciously expended in Della,
ware were potent enough to construct
and carry the Infamous Clayton Bull
| wer treaty. Later events we know all
| about, because they have been Of
| fensively under the noses of the pres
ent generation. Readers of The Times
do not require to be again reminded
| Of the arbitration campaign, nor of
| British opposition to the Nicaragua
I, Canal and the annexation of Hawaii
And this is the old and remorseless
enemy that we are invited to join with
| in a, to US. purposeless fight against
the only friend we have had in Europe
| since France aided us in the War of
! independence. If the proposition even
| did not involve national ingratitude
and dishonor. it would be intolerable
upon cold business grounds. Russia
and we are not rivals. The growth,
prosperity and glory of America are
matters Of satisfaction to the car.
They tend to create a balance of
power on this side Of the water. which
is valuable TO him and vastly valuable
| TO us.
1t would be the extreme of idiocy for
US to ally ourselves with Great Brit
ain. 1t would be almost the same for
| us not TO solidify our relations with
Russia.