The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-05-19
ANOTHER CONFLICT IRREPREss.
IBLE

There is no doubt that the entente cor
dale between the United States and
Great Britain is being strengthened by
the obvious sympathy of the English with
US in our contention with Spain, and II
an Anglo-Saxon alliance is never re-
allied, the better feeling that has beer
aroused may yet be productive Of good
results. We shall for a long time to come
be relieved Of the danger Of an open rup-
ture with England, periodically menaced
in the past. ard neither the one people
nor the other will be so likely to take
umbrage at the attitude assumeditoward
the determination Of questions In which
the rights and interests of each are in
volved Our dispatches this morning note
the fact that negotiations are satisfac-
torily progressing for reciprocity treaty
| for the Bermudas, the Bahama and other
West Indian possessions Of Great Brit
ain, and assurances are also given that
Canada will soon enter into negotiations
for similar treaty.
We have never been enamored with the
hopes held out of considerable enlarge
ment of our export trade through the
medium Of reciprocity treaties--reciproc-
ity meaning simply free trade in spots.
but the greater willingness of Great
Britain to meet us on the basis of an
exchange of privileges in her colonies
serves to accentuate the narrowing Of
the chasm that has separated the two
great English-speaking nations.
Another wholesome outcome of the re-
stored relations is promised in the speedy
final determination Of the points at issue
regarding the Boring sea fisheries, and
it will not be safe to assume that the ar
bitration treaty, rejected by the senate
at time when it was thought we had
fewer interests in common, will long re-
main on the shelf
But, whereas there are numberless
reasons for national felicitation over the
restoration of friendly and even cordial
relations with Great Britain, it is obvious
that the irritation created in other Euro
pean states by the passage of the
Dingley tariff bill, with its added restric-
lions upon the free interchange OF COM
merce, is operating to our great embar-
rassment and disadvantage in the pres
ent crisis. Protestations Of disinterested-
ness, and of rigid neutrality, that are
vouchsafed by the governments of
France, Belgium, Germany and Austria,
count for little in the face of the uncon-
cealed sympathy of the masses of the
people iri those countries, as voiced by the
public press for the Spanish contention
"a sympathy that springs not wholly
from racial considerations or dynastic
traditions, but which, to a large extent
may be traced to the workings Of the
economic policy Of our government, to the
barriers to trade which 1t has raised up
to apprehensions that the markets Of the
United States are to be practically closed
to their commerce.
The administration affects to believe
that the attitude of the French people
on the tariff is dictated by popular SYM
pathy for Spain. If the real truth could
be ascertained, it would be found, on
the contrary, that much of French SYM
pathy for Spain is provoked by the appli-
cation of the new American tariff re-
strlctions to French productions. Long
before the declaration of war with Spain
our negotiations fer a reciprocity treaty
with France languished, and little hope
was entertained of even measurable sue
cess along those lines. Negotiations have
since been wholly suspended. That they
were not undertaken in good faith by
France was shown by the prompt action
of the French assembly in enacting laws
imposing increased duties upon American
products, before the Dingley tariff law
was fairly in effect. These duties have
been still further advanced within the
past fortnight by the customs officials
Of France, under discretion conferred
by the legislative act, and American
meat products are effectually shut out of
France today. Against these later pro-
hibitive measures our government is
strongly protesting, but without appar-
ent results.
The same causes have produced the
same results in Germany and in Austro-
Hungary, and the friction may be ex-
pected to increase rather than diminish
Europe must continue to look to us for
bread, but the fact that Americans have
taken advantage Of it's necessities to
double the price of wheat, in the faca
Of starving millions, Is another incident
going to explain the drift Of sentiment
abroad against our country. Waging a
foreign war, ostensibly in the interest
Of humanity, In the western hemisphere,
we are credited with placing the staff OF
| life beyond the reach Of the multitudinous
victims of the famine in the eastern
hemisphere.
| These consequences, more or less en-
barrassing and threatening. have long
been pointed out as inevitable, from the
continued exploitation of false economic
policy, by its opponents in the United
States. Our war with Spain is likely soon
to come to an end, but the commercial
war which our policy has provoked does
not promise such speedy or satisfactory
termination. There may be no European
Intervention in the interest Of Spain. but
q commercial league among European
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