The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-29

revolution, but these movements on the
cness-Doard, cold and calculating, do not
The Russians are not our people, and we
are not theirs A young man came to
Washington some time ago to procure as
slstance from our State Department to be
permitted TO go back TO his home in Russia.
He was the son of a well-to-do Russian
merchant, and had come to this country in
the desire to seek his fortune in a large
held OF opportunity. He violated the law
OF Russia IN expatriatng himself and be-
coming an American citizen, and after he
found himself unable to earn a living here
and wanted to go back to Russia and see
ms nome and his mother, he realized that
ne had committed an objectionable offenSe,
and that a Siberian dungeon awaited him.
The State Department could not help him,
ana the poor man has wandered aimleSsly
ABOUT washington, victim of mans in
humanity TO man. Can any one see this I'M
fortunate and say that Russia is our natural
comrade among the nations, and England,
with its free system, by which a Welsh
American Stanley becomes a British par
hamentarlan, is our traditional foe, or that
we want the civilization of the Car to over
run and submerge that from which America
draws its national life? And this war is
Just waking Washington up to some Of
these considerations.
A SENTIMENTAL SIDE.
OF course, nobody knows how much of an
alliance with Great Britain the future may
afford. 1t might be only in moral support,
such as England is now giving the United
otdtSS' II might 80 IL Slep IuIlHeI, anu III
case Of an attempt to shut off England's
food supplies in war, we might insist, since
we have the bread to sell, on delivering the
goods to our starving customers. If we
have big navy when the attempt is made
to cut off Englands food supply, any con-
tinental alliance that would plan to try that
game might think twice before daring to
risk running up against our combined fleets.
The terms and the details remain for time
and circumstance to work out.
Ihere is also a sentimental Side-a dream
side, which wonderfully feeds the magma
tion-and the effects of such diet cannot be
wholly dlSregarded. The wars OF the world,
With the progress Of military invention,
may become so destructive as to mean eX-
ter termination: Peace may be a necessity as
some power must be the dominating one.
Shall it be the Slav or the Saxon? Shall the
World E language be Russian or English?
Shall the world law be one of individual
freedom or that of despotism? Could we
but be assured of an ultimate union of
American and English interests, what prin-
ciples would dominate this peace of the
world could not long remain a question. A
glance at the map tells the story. All of
pole speaks English. This territory is des
tined to remain more populOus and re-
sourceful than the rest of the hemisphere.
The continent of Australia is apparently
secure. In Europe England is still doing
business at the old stand and on little
100, 900 square miles of territory, supporting
If any race is to dominate the worlds flu
ture it should be this race. The interna-
tional postal congress here developed the
fact that two-thirds of the mail of the
world was addressed in English. Statistics
like these bring up alluring visions of a
world-language, a world law, a power which
might dominate the peace of mankind, and
bring the unspeakable Turk to trial for his
misdeeds as before a police court. This
may be all moonshine, but from sentiments
have come great surprises. The extensions
of commercial relations are the wonderful
binding-irons. 1t came hard for the bust
ness world to go to war with poor Spain
because of the commercial intimacies in
volved, and the independence of the peo-
Piles of the modern world How much more
vital is this interdependence of the two
great English peoples, united by the ocean
cables and the fast steamships, and who
can tell how closely these lines may draw
the peoples together? The conveyance of
the Anglo-SaxOn peoples may be the great
thought on the page of the twentieth CEN
tury's history. If SO, our little Spanish war
nan he