The evening times., 1898-06-17
FRIDAY, JUNE, IL, 1895.
The Anglo American situation,

1t is only fair to say that the English
enthusiasm for a closer alliance with
America is not the growth of day.
Expressions of friendliness may be
picked up through past years. and even
TeprOacheS for our GOODNESS. The Eng
lish have said that if the Americans en-
tertain the feelings often expressed
by our ministers at official dinners, We
have succeeded too well in assembling
our love 1t is more than two years since
that very conservative journal, the
London Spectator, said, in all serious
,. ness. that in the minds Of many Eng
=. lishmen love for America reached al
most the degree of pass on. THAT the
Americans should believe they hate US.
or should profess to do so, is very
grievous wound to Englishmen; but
what is bitter beyond all bearing is the
thought that the Americans do not only
not like US, but do not even know that
we like Them 1t quotes many Incl
dents to prove the sincerity of the Eng
lishman's affection for
We might, in return point to the
American girls who have carried their
fortunes to England TO restore the early
in America who initiate English man
ners. dress and speech; to our generous
: welcome to English books and English
. actors and writers, who come for
money: to the rich people, who pros
trate themselves before every English
visitor with a title. These show that
the hatred of the English is not unani-
nous. There has been no general ex-
preston of American opinion the
subject of the closer relations suggest
ed by Mr.. Chamberlain, the most i'm
portant being the favorable resolution
of the Presbyterian General Assembly
1t is probable, however, that the Spec
tator exaggerates what it calls Ameri-
can hatred of England.
Whatever American sentiment may
be- it is at least interesting to con-
slider what such closer relations might
involve. A first glance does not by any
means reveal the tremendous poss:bil-
ties of an Anglo-American alliance. 1t
would. above ali, insure the final dom
ination of the world by the moral ideas
of the Anglo-SaNon race. Its effects
would be achieved by something more
than the creation of great armies
though the ability to put into the field
an army of five or six millions of able
bodied men is in itself masterful fact |
1t would consolidate the influence and |
the vast wealth of the two leading riv- |
ais for commercial supremacy, with |
their enormous share in the agricultur- |
al interests Of the world, including the |
chief cotton fields. 1t is obvious that |
for war-making power the combination |
would be Incompatible. |
The Anglo-Saxon race, in the most |
comprehensive use of the term, is grow
ing as no other has ever grown. There
is a world of significance in the fact
that only eighty years ago the people
speaking the English tongue numbered
but thirty millions, while now they
number one hundred and twenty mil
lions They have doubled twice within
the lifetime of Mr.. Gladstone. The first
half of that period had its wars, pesti-
lence and famine, that the chief
growth has been in the last half CEN
tury This unparalleled increase led
Mr.. Gladstone to predict the eventual
universal use of the English language.
In period of twenty years the pop
ulation of the United States increased
sixty three per cent; in England and
Wales the increase in the same years
was twenty-seven per cent; that of
Russia was thirty per cent. and of Ger
many twenty-one per cent. The popu-
lation of France was virtually un-
changed. Today one-fourth the civ
ilized world excluding Russia in Asa)
is English-speakng. The foreign i'm
migrants in the United States who have
become naturalized citizens are rated
as English speaking. Their children in
evitably acquire the language of the
country. If we include with what is
regarded as civilized mankind the en-
tire native, the half-savage and the
immigrant population of South and
Central America and Japan, the people
who speak English and hold English
ideas. constitute twenty lone per cent
Of the whole. Russia in Europe repre-
sents sixteen per cent, Germany nine
per cent, France seven per cent, Aus
tria-Hungary eight per cent, and Italy
and Spain about six per cent each.
No other combination of peoples could !