The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-25

lister and DoubIy Ambitious to
Change American Sentiment to-
Looking with Greater Favor
Upon John BuII-HOw Such
Demonstrations Will Injure Us.
Correspondence The st. Paul Globe.
LONDON, Sept. 10.-There may be
some readers Of my letters to The
Globe who will almost be ready to
entertain the opinion that I see moth
ing whatever good in the English peo~
pie. If there be any who really have
formed such an opinion 1 would hasten
t. enter my protest against it and as
sure them that they are entirely wrong.
The person who asserts that there is
not the good as we'll as the bad in any
civilized country is certainly not worth
listening to, much less being taken Sc
riOusy.
But it is not the good side Of English
life and English character that has
formed the basis of my letters Their
purpose so far has been mainly to re-
veal as accurately as lies within my
power the situation in England that
hidden truths which only those who
have lived among the English people
in favorable circumstances can appre-
ciate.
1t is apparent that one lays himself
open to criticism by antagonizing at
this time the forces at work to bring
England and America closer together
than they have ever been before. If
such criticism comes from patriotic
Americans who have lived among En-
gIish people and met their leisure and
governing classes, it may be worth con-
sideration, but if it is based merely
upon the reading Of books and news
paper dispatches from London it counts
for little. The ordinary tourist can
form little opinion of the politics Of ma
tons Up to the present time the
American people have cared practically
nothing about foreign politics, and,
moreover, the bulk of the editorials in
the American press on this subject
have savored more of the college essay
than of practical knowledge of what is
going on beneath the surface of things
1t is all very we'll when a foreign de-
spatch comes over the wire to get down
a history and spread out a map, and
then dash off an editorial on the mean
ing Of it all, but this hardly goes far
enough. AS things are today in foreign
news the question ought to come up in
every newspaper Office when there is
foreign question to be met: What
does Washington know about this?"
And most respectfully submit to any
editor who may read these lines that
the Importance Of our department Of
state as a great news center is not suf-
fciently emphasized. The editor Is
much too often misled by mere theories
based upon an utterly unreliable sys-
tenn Of obtaining news from Europe. 1
say utterly unreliable advisedly, for
even were news associations over here
perfectly organized and their corre-
spOndents trained in the American idea
of gathering absolute facts, there would
still be met the national prejudice of
all mOnarchical forms of government
against the revelation of their secret
policies. Even here in England, which
boasts that the will of the people is
carried out, we have a most fragrant
example Of absolute silence on the part
Of the government except where it uses
the press like a football to serve its
own purpose.
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.
In talking with an English gentlema n
recently upon the different facilities for
obtaining news in the two countries.
he observed With great surprise: why.
then, you give your press more liberty
than we do ours OF course. could
only reply that there was no "give''
about it, for the liberty Of the press
was one Of the fundamental princin1as
of our national life from the beginning
When he suggested the yellow press
as a natural result, I related how re-
Gently I had occasion to look into the
field of weekly London publications for
advertising purposes and bought over
eighty Of the vilest sheets on earth and
then did not get near all of them. And
any one Of these Is more dangerous
than anything Of the yellow order in
america the same as vice in London
Is far worse than the vice of Paris
What L maintain, and 1 have met
many among them being judges and
professional men as well as business
men and farmers, who have the same
conVlctlon, is that the closer America
gets TO England the worse it will be
Ior Anerlcas future. This belief does
not in the least imply war between the
1t, which she will never do for her own
sake. Nor does 1t imply a nonsensicaI
jingo outbreak at every action of Great
Britain But 1t does emphatically mean
belief in discouraging everything
which will tend to make other nations
Inistrust US.
The man who does not know thai
demonstrations on Americas part in
favor Of England will antagonize other
powers must know little indeed of
foreign affairs. So must he who thinks
that sentiment enters into European
pclitics. Further, it is evident that to
enter into debate with England is to
let her almost into ones vitals.
Whether one belongs to the old Dem
ocratic party or not will in time make
no difference in the admission that Mr..
Cleveland and Mr.. Olney understood
fo reign affairs better than any two men
we have had in Washington in many
a day. England had been backing and
filing for years and would be backing