Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1898-11-10
FRIENDSHIP TO ALL.
OUR POSITION TOWARD THE
GREAT NATIONS.
Even Sham of Unusual Friendship for
the AnElo-Saxons Would Iniurs Our
Trade All Over tho Civilized World
Must Hold Aloof. g


lean alliance. OF course, this talk
could come from none save the shoddy
American. except it be from the pur-
chased newspapers and pulpits under
foreign domination. The Chicago Inter
Ocean, a paper that is not owned i'll
England, has this to say about re-
cent incident:
Rev. DR.. Hills demonstrated again
last Sunday the utter incapacity OF
clerical declaimers of his type to nan
die the higher questions Of state pol
icy. While hundreds of the ablest
ministers of the country have come
to the support of a resolute and dis
tinctive Americanism, Dr.. Hills, who
last spring spoke against the war with
Spain. now desires that an Anglo
American alliance be one of the results
of our victory. His characterization
Of the impulses, motives, and achieve
ments of the English-speaking people
is specifically correct, but he seems
to be utterly unconscious of the fact
that the arguments he puts forward
and the illustrations he uses are all IN
favor of English domination ana
against American interests. This is the
greatest fault with all the cheap ad-
vocates of an alliance.
DR.. Hills contends that the strate-
gic position of America and England
proclaims leadership as the ultimate
destiny of the English-speaking peo-
pies. I'm case of war England and
America, by uniting their forces, will
possess all the pivotal harbors that
control the continents" he says, and
then mentions as the strategic points
Of the world the Strait Of Gibraltar,
the Suez canal, the great harbor OF
India, the st. Lawrence river on our
north and the entrance to the Mexican
gulf on our south. This is an effective
grouping, but DR.. Hills fails to men
ton the singular fact that of these
strategic positions four are in the pos
session of Great Britain, and that the
other will not be in the possession of
the United States until we control Gu
ba and Porto Rico.
Another point made by DR.. Hills is
that the lines of commerce, as we'll as
those of defense, are in the hands OF
the English-speaking people. The sta
tistics show that the lines of COM
merce are in the hands Of Great Brit
ain, and that her naval power and her
commercial sinews are being strained
to maintain them against all the world.
Most particularly are her commercial
people jealous of and hostile to pow
er like the United States, which is
struggling for supremacy in the same
field as England. The manufacturers,
merchants, and producers of England
have succeeded up to this time in driv-
ing the American merchant marine
from the seas. They will continue in
this policy. The English-speaking peo-
pies control the lines of commerce, but
England has the lions share and gives
10 sign Of relinquishing it even to
please us.
DR.. Hills says that today England
and America control four-fifths Of the
fresh water Of the globe. He forgets to
remark that in this division England
has taken three-flfths, leaving America
one-fifth. He forgets, also. to mention
the fact that in the line Of great lakes
between British and American terri
tory Great Britain is so jealous Of
American power that she will not per-
NIT us to maintain more than one gun
boat, where our interests demand half
a dozen. Despite this fact DR.. Hills
refers to a decisive battle 40 years
ago as an example of Anglo-American
sympathy and power. Why does he go
back 40 years? Why not speak of last
week. when we learned that England
had projected a new chain Of forts
along the Canadian frontier? These
forts can be intended but for one ma
ton. and that nation is the United
States Americans and Englishmen
may have fought side by side at Que
bee 40 years ago, but the Englishmen
of today prepare for an event in which,
instead of fighting shoulder to Shout
der, they would fight face to face.
DR.. Hills suggests that if we would
send men like Seth Low, ex-President
Cleveland, Lyman Abbott, and Joseph
Choate to speak to England from the
American point Of view, the whole
world would be made to stop and listen
for one day, at least, to noble plea
for the rights and liberty of the peo-
ple. This utterance sounds like irony,
but we shall accept it as made in good
faith. Most of the men named by DR..
Hills have stood in the past with ex-
Minister Phelps, who told us last win
ter that it was impossible for America
ever to be naval power or a great
commercial power on the seas, simply
because Americans were naturally I'M
fit for naval or nautical enterprise. In
stead Of representing American senti-
ment, instead of speaking for Ameri-
can aspiration. these men have rarely
missed an opportunity to smother
American sentiment or to discourage
the American spirit. At the very crisis
of the war they were not in sympathy
with any national aspiration. The alb
surdity OF suggesting that such men
bn cant oil axn0pantc ~ tho