Arizona republican., 1898-03-01
STAINS EUROPEAN FRIENDS.

r The question has naturally arisen as to whether, in the. event of war be- tween the United States and Spain, the latter country would receive material assistance from any other European nation. The London Spectator and Saturday Review are of the opinicn that assurances of support from France have been received at Madrid, and that it is knowledge of this fact that has restrained MT. Mckinley, up to this time, from taking vigorous measures in the Cuban affair. The New York Sun, on the contrary, argues that there is little or no danger to be anticipated in this country from Franco-Spanish alliance against us Much of the Spanish debt is, indeed owed to French creditors, but these creditors are largely the very persons against whom the recent anti-Semitic outburst at Paris has been direc e1 It is not probable that any French ministry would undertake a course of action at such a time that would be interpreted as being for the benefit of these hated people.
 The broader view to take, however, would seem to be that no European nation could afford to promise much more than it's moral support to Spain at this time, when there are so many important complications to be consid- in rfh orfc of of country is free to send her ships and her men to this side of the Atlantic Can Russia keep her hands and her eyes off her new possessions in China long enough to lend aid to the Penin- sula Kingdom? And why should she been a traditional friendship between Russia and the United States. It has been in evidence on more than one occasion. Why should the czar wish to disturb this amicable condition? What reason has he for preferIing Spain to us? No Russian scheme of aggrandizement, so far as we can re- member, has ever extended to the West India islands. Russia did at one time get hold on the American northwest, and perhaps she wishes that she had never relinquished it; but even her devouring ambition has enough to satisfy it for an indefinite period in Europe and Asia. And since she does not care for foothold in this portion of the world, it is fair to believe that oh xuil jet n1y { retain her own.
 There have been rumors of help for Spain from the Triple Alliance, but here again we see the chief member busily engaged with colonial enter prises in other parts of the world. It is not alone in China that Germany has aspirations to establish new and greater empire. On the west coast of South Africa she has hundreds of thousands of square miles of undevel- | British sphere of influence, and in East Africa her possessions are vast enough to require her continual and careful attention. Her navy is weak, and how can she spare many ships to help Spain fight a country in which 1 the Teutonic element is very stron g numerical one? There are many ties 1 between us and Germany that would assert themselves if a hostile move ment should be made at Berlin. The German class in our population is one of the most influential, while the Spanish element is comparatively in significant.
 Nobody supposes that Great Britain would go to war against us to please any other nation on the face of the earth. There has been a revival of the cousinly feeling between us in
 recent years, despite the ardent pro tests of such patriots as MT. Patrick Ford; and the tendency of the times
 is toward an Anglo-Saxon alliance that
 shall make both for the preservation
 of international peace and for the su-
 premacy of the English speaking race
 in the twentieth century. For France
 or Germany, or Russia, indeed, tC
 align herself with Spain against us
 would be the signal for England tC
 take the other side, not only for ouI
 sake, but for her own; not only fol
 sentimental reasons, but for practical
 ones, including the furtherance of hel
 plans in the far east, where her de
 sires coincide so closely with ours. We
 must remember that neither Germany
 nor France, for example, cou,d helI
 Spain and expect to see no European
 assistance proffered to America. Such
 assistance might not be proffered, but again it might be, and then there