The record-union., 1898-12-04
Europe Regards America With
Feelings of Anger.
Utter Dislike Shown for the Conquest Of
the Philippines.
William I. Stead Hears Alternate
Taunts and Lamentations Of the
Foes and Friends Of America
During His Travels Throughout
Europe.

1ONDON, NOV. 24.-Wlliam Il. stead,
writing from Rome under date of No
vember 21st, says:
THE answer to the question, what
does the old world think of the new
world? has never been made with great
er emphasis than in the Eternal City.
The oldest old world regards the new
est new with feelings of anger, dis
gust and alarm almost too great for
words. The sentiment of Indignation
differs in intensity. But it is univers-
al. There is no sympathy for the Unit
ed States, either among whites or
blacks. In fact, dislike of the Ameri-
can seizure of the Philippines, and a
conviction that the humane enthusiasm
which made the war possible was a
mere mask of cant assumed i'm order
to facilitate conquest, are almost the
only sentiments shared in common by
the rival camps of the quirinal and the
Vatican.
With the Kings men the sentiment
is comparatively mild. They do not
believe in the least in the disinterest ed
ness of the American war of liberation.
The American declarations are almost
universally derided as hideous exam
pies of a worse than English hypoc-
risy. Uncle Sam, they say, determined
in all things to surpass John Bull, has
outdone him even in pharisaisrn and
cant. The friends of America wiring
their hands in unaffected grief over
the fall of the United States and the
temptations of lust for territorial ex-
pansion. Her enemies shoot out the
lip, and can shrdek in derision over
what they regard as the unmistakable
demonstration which the demand
for the Philippines affords of
American cupidity, American bad
faith and American ambition. we
told you so,' they exclaim. That is
what the unctious rectitude Of the An
glo-Saxon always ends in. He always
begins by calling heaven to witness
his unselish desire to help his neigh
bors, but he always ends by stealing
his spoons
1T is unpleasant for the AngIo-Sa
to hear this onl every side, but since the
peace negotiations have developed a
demand for the complete cession of the
Philippines Americans will do we'll
to recognize that some such statement
as the above represents the current
opinion of almost every one in Eu
rope who pays cursory attention to
what is going on abroad. The immense
majority of Europeans are of course,
absolutely ignorant of what has hap
pened Intent on their daily toll, they
neither know nor care what occurs in
other hemispheres. But the Europeans
who read newspapers, who form what
may be described as the public opinion
Of the old world, are practically of one
mind on the matter Outside England I
have met no non-American who did
not dislike the expansion of America,
nor do I think in the whole of our
tour through Europe I have met
European who did not receive my pro-
teStations as to the genuine sincerity
with which the American people en-
tered the war with more or less mock
ing incredulity.
1t is all very WE'LL they say in
effect, to dissemble your love, but why
did YOU kick me down stairs? 1t was all
very we'll to proclaim your. disinter-
estedness, but why did you seize the
Philippines?'
. Mere national brigandage, marked
ly odious pharisaism,' is phrase.
which roughly represents the Judgment
OF the old world from the developments
OF the new-from what may be learned,
once more the old truth, that in a mans
Judgment of his neighbors' motives we
see the mirror of his own character. For
the most part they express no surprise.
They expected nothing better from
these English of the new world. .Thev
are true to their ancestry. But there is.
in every country a minority of
thoughtful men, who, having for all
their lives been the stanchest friends
OF the American commonwealth. are
now eonounded and utterly put to
shame at what is universally regarded
as the apostasy of the United States.
the abandonment of their national poll
icy and the adoption of the world policy
of conquest
When | listened. as I have been lis
tenlng Tor months past, to alternate
taunts and lamentations of the foes
and friends of America, the babble of
voices seemed at least to merge into
one chorus of welcome to Uncle Sam.
You may urge, protest and rage as
you please, the old world has made up
its mind on the subject, and nothing
that can be said or done in the United
States will alter its judgment. The
American Government has come out of
its ring fence. 1t has thrown its hat
into the arena Of the world. IT ia
launched on career Of conquest. which
will be all the more predatory because
it is marked by humanitarianism. The
they hold, has suc-
cumbed to the malady which has so
long plagued the Old World. A bright
hope for the human race was extin-
guished when the only non-n1ilitary
power which eschewed all schemes of
aggression and annexation enrolled it
self among the common herd Of COM
quering states. So men talk every
where in Europe. Whether they regard
the old American idea with sympathy
or with content, they all agree in be-
lieving that it has been abandoned. and
that forever. The annexation of the
Philippine Islands may seem but
small thing, but it is decisive.
In the course of my tour I am now
compelled to admit I found proof ex-
istence of a disposition on the part of
the Powers to. intervene on behalf of
Spain, which might have been very
serious had it not been checked In the
bud by the knowledge that England
would have nothing to do with It. When
was in Paris I was positively told
that no proposal had ever been made
to intervene. and that therefore Eng
land had never had the occasion or op-
portunity TO put her foot down on the
ant~American coalition. That. no