The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-09-01

| would increase entanBlementS, inter-
national impartiality would be impos-
sible; each nation would be fettered
| and hampered: discussions of compen-
| sations and advantages and equivalents
would follow; and friction and irrita-
tion would finally degenerate into open
hostility. 1t was against such alliances
that Washington warned us, and his
advice Is sound today. We want none
of them. We need no alliances often
| sive and defensive: nor permanent and
| comprehensive treaties.
More powerful than formally articu-
| lated alliances and more enduring than
written treaties, is the bond of inter
est and sentiment that unites the two
| branches of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Next to giving us the Philippines, the
| greatest blessing of our late war was
| TO re-discover England and America
| TO each other. The two peoples, now
Tor the first time in century, earn
estily desire each others friendship.
| NOR is this sudden aspiration born
of emergencies in the Spanish Ameri-
can war, but the result as we have
| seen, of economic political and racial
| FORCES which have been silently at
work for centuries. The great unwrt-
| ten and natural laws, the laws higher
| than human institutions, are assert
| ing their supremacy and are drawing
the two peoples together with an i'm
| pulse that no human power can safely
resist. That alliance is even now more
than a theory. it is fast becoming an
| actualitN; and woe betide any man
or party that disregards that fact and
| gets in front of an inexorable racial
| movement backed by 125,000,O0O en-
| hghtened sovereigns.
TRADE NECESSITIES.
| America contains today $1,000, 900 of
Ihe most ingenious, intelligent and
i
| auctlon Is far exceeding consumption.
1 Ihe result is that we must find addi-
llona} markets or curtail our pro-
| oucts: Hence our intense and in
| creaslng interest in the worlds COM
merce, to which we gave scarcely a
thought when the country was young.
| ana Wherever we go, in whatever di-
rectlon we expand our trade, there
| we md Great Britain already estab-
| llshed, maintaining open markets,
forcing wide the doors of commerce,
ana developing trade interests identi-
| cal with our own.
The area of England and her colo
MES is 16,662,073 square miles, more
| tndn TOUR and a half times the size
| OF the United States; and the popula-
| tlon is 361, 900. These possessions,
100, are constantly increasing. In the
past twelve years England acquired
| 100000 square miles, more than twen-
| lppines, Porto Rico and Hawaii and
all this territory is open to America
on practically the same terms as to
Great Britain. Even into remote Bri-
tlsh possessions and markets, we are
pushing our commerce and discover
ing untold possibilities. The African
Cape Colony imports from British do
mnions, aggregated last year $780,
362; and nearly three times larger
than the imports from any other coun-
try We're those from the United States,
| or Sl3,l5l,O71. Our total exports to
AFRICA in 1883 were only $4,000, 900; but
Tor the fiscal year 1898, they were over
S17OO0.000. And in China, where Eng
land single-handed is opposing Russia,
we pass through the doors she forces
open, and in her own sphere of infiu-
ence, compete with her own merchants
for their local trade. Our commerce
| amounts to one-seventh of all China s
foreign trade. Last year it was three
times as great as in 1885, four times
as great as in 1890; so per cent. great
er than that of Germany, and second
only to that of England.
| In fact in Englands own territory,
as we'll as in the ports held open by
her diplomacy and arms, we are her
chief rival. Our trade ranks second to
her own, and often aggregates more
| than the combined continental imports.
And that trade is rapidly increasing,
even more rapidly than the phenomen-
| al increase in our general export trade,
| which last year was twice that of 1888,
four times as much as in 1869, and
| seven times that of 1865.
OUR EXPORTS TO BRITAIN.
| And what is the startling and in
| credible aggregate result of this alli-
ance of trade interests? In 1897 our
entire exports aggregated $1,050, ,000,-
600, and our exports to the British do
minions and spheres of influence were
alone nearly so per cent. of that sum.
During the same year our exports to
| Germany and all German colonies were
11.91 per cent, to France and all
French colonies 5.74 per cent, and to
Russia and all her dominions, II of
one per cent, of our export trade. In
other words, our British exports We're
b times as great as our German, 10
times as great as our French, and 10
times as great as our Russian; 24O
per cent. greater than our exports to
Germany, France and Russia COM
bined; and so per cent. more than our
exports to all the rest of the world
These facts need no comment. They
establish the corolary, however that
If you curtail British territory or Brit
ish influence, you necessarily curtail
American commerce. Our trade in the
Orient is now $35 900, 900 per year, and
under normal conditions it will soon be
100000, 600. All along our Pacific coast
this new trade impulse is felt. Our
general increase of exports last year
was 17.3 per cent. but while our At
lantic ports increased 1851, and our
gulf ports S.6 per cent, the increase Of
our Pacific ports was no less than 25. 7
per cent.
All that trade is now seriously mem
aced by Russia and her allies in the
East. In the present anxious position
Of affairs may we rot greatly assist
England? And incalculably benefit
ourselves? What right have we to
stand supinely by and let Great Britain
hight our trade battlesP Is it just? Is
1t becoming in a great nation? What
II unaided, Great Britain should fail /?
When the trade interests of the two
nations are identical, as in China, and
those interests are imperil!ed, are not
temporary trade alliances both justi-
liable and necessary?
AUSTRIA'S THREAT.
Last November Austrias minister of
foreign affairs used this threatening
language: ''The peoples of Europe
must fight shoulder to shoulder against
the common danger. and must arm
themselves for the struggle with all
the means at their disposal" This
common danger" and struggle" refer
to the american invasion of Conti-
mental markets. II joint action should
follow Austria's advice. would not a
Mell-defined trade alliance between
England and America, against Europe
banded for the destruction of the COM
merce and Industries of both, be justi-
fed on every ground of self-interest
and self-preservation? And if the
: united diplomacy of Great Britain and
/, America should not avail with Russia
: and Germany and France to abolish