The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-04-23
A%aaIo.AMEaic4N ALLIANCE.
Opinion. Her. !. Dl.esrpssss y I conps,-

FIYHW 49, HEEH
entrrapsatiantie Observer.
Mr.. Sidney Low. formerly editor OF
the ST. James' Gazette, Is ut present
on a visit 20 the United States, and he
writes to his paper az follows.
There 10 o good deal Of talk about an
Anglo-Americon alliance Just now.
E%ngllshmen may be excused it they re-
gard the proposition. for the moment,
with q certain amount OF cynical amnse.
ment. When they recolleet the furious
and indecent hostility which certain or
gans OF American opinion have display
cd toward Great Britain, they cannot
quite believe In the sincerity OF this
very recent conversion. .All Very we'll"
says tho natural British man. They
abused us like ~pickpoekets for years.
When We are In a difficulty with any
body-France, Russia, the Beers even
they don't conceal their cSultntion; and
the moment we have a diplomatic dis
cussion with them, they talk about war
and threaten to invade Y Canada. IL
they are amicnble Just now, 1t Is be-
cause they find themselves on the eve
OF lostiltties with a power which has
got u navy, and they would like our
help. They want some of our battle
ships: that is ALL But that is not quite
all. In the FIRST place, the United States
does not want the hell Of our navy to
beat Spain. Rightly or wrongly. nos
body In the UnKed States has the
slightest doubt as to the issue OF AZ ma
val war with the Spaniards, That they
will whip the Dons" they believe TO be
n foregonc conclusion; and even In the
war department at Washington, where
they know better than the, outside pub
lice how inadequate In many important
respects their own ornaments nre, they
have little fear of the ultimate result.
What they r Q afraid OF Is that the
lSpanlards may, make a better fight OF 1t
than the comparative resources and po-
sition OF the two nations Justify. An
eventual success, achieved after months
OF hard struggle, and after the cxpendi-
ture of many valuable lives. would be
a Cadmean Victory for the United
States. Theyiarc anxious to overcome
the %Snaniards without n serious loss
of prestige. From this point OF view the
offer Of English war vessels to assist
In the. operations before Havana would
be as damaging to the United States as
It would have been to us II we had nc-
cepted the offer OF the Prussian gov
eminent to lend us troops to quell the
Indian mutiny Of 1851. II the United
States cannot beat Spain of its own
bat. as Lord Palmerston would have
said, its status as a great power Is Very
seriously shaken indeed.
No. Moral support. just now, is what
the United States would be rather glad
to have from us. The phrase may pro-
Yoke a smile; for moral support is about
the last thing that seems to count for
much in international relations. Not the
moral, but the material, factor Is the
one that tells in this age Of iron. Never
thelcss, it Is the former which, for the
moment. is weighing somewhat heavily
in America. / have very good grounds
for sayingzt that for some time past the
fear Of foreign Intervention In the Gu
ban imbroslio has been n bugbear with
| the state department. With all their
swaggcr. and self-assertion toward this
country, American statesmen arc ner-
vously Conservative where general
foreign affairs are concerned. There is
n sort Of tradition that al occasional
breeze with England does not matter;
1t Is good parry politics. and 1t has been
set going So often with impunity that
it Is never looked upon quite seriously.
II is firmly believed that nc English
government would ever be permitted
by the English people to go to extrem!-
ties with the United States; SO that an
AnElo-American war scare Is no more
than an occasional cheap excitement,
which will pass away as 1t originated.
But the mere suggestion of q rupture
with q continental state alarms and
d~isconcerts the Americans. II is not ex-
aCtly that they are frightened. 1ndi-
~vidually, and In their corporate capac-
ity, Americansaar are brave to the point
of recllessness,. and will coolly take
chances from which most other people
would shrink appalled,. But in the man
agements of their national affairs they
are curiously under the sway of tradi-
| tion and custom. They, do not like
change or violent innovations Of any
kind, which Is one reason why they al
low themselves to be helplessly hide
bound by. an Anticipated constitution,
which Is every year proving itself less
suited to the needs and circumstances
of the times.
In foreign affairs the tradition Is that
of leaving alone and being left alone.
The entanglemcnts of European poll
ties are abhorrent to the American
mind; and the mere suggestion-surely
a very Ill founded one-that France or
Germany might take n hand in the
game, hns weighed with Washington, as
much as anything else, to keep the Gu
ban trouble in a state of simmering sus-
| pense instead OF settling 1t by a bold
stroke long ago. 1t Is not so much fear
as ineXperiencc. American diplomacy
Is very youthful, and more youthful
even than Its years warrant. At the
| present time itl IL practically directed
by an extremely able and hard-headed
m~iddle-ased gentleman. who wa a law
yer In moderate practice in a provincial
town till Mr.. Mckinley made him as
| sistant secretary Of state; and Mr.. Nc
Kinley himself, I suppose, never saw a
confidential dispatch from a foreign
| government till he became President.
Under such conditions American policy
Is naturally >timld and hesitating when
1 1t becomes n question of dealing with
the bold and skilled diplomacy Of Eu-
ropean statesmen. accustomed to play
mighty fleets and armies against onc
another, like counters in the game, and
to face the, most menacing contingent
Giles as part of their daily work.
But things are changing. There arc
two currents perceptible In America.
On the one hand, there still swells and
eddies the old tide Of dislike toward
England. We deceive ourselves II we
suppose that the masses OF Americans
especially the half-instructed, and less
than half-Amerlcaniged, masses Of the
west-have any liking for US. They