Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-07-29
THE GOLDEN AGE.
IT'S PRESAGED BY THE ANGLO.
AMERICAN ALLIANCE.

faf wrong, Although lie Failed
to Discern the Precise God of
Peace Whose Reign Was TO
to Bring Happiness and Con.
tent-The Dawn of That Glad
some Morn Is Breaking.
Written for the STANDARD by Lady Cooke. nee
Tennessee c. Clafiiin.
The ancient poets tell us there was
once time when the great god Saturn
reigned in Italy, and bestowed happi
ness and tranquility over all the earth
The husbandmen gathered in peace
the fruits of his labor, and the fields
smiled with plenteous harvests. The
liberal arts were sedulouslv v cultivated
and every home was the abode OF in
nocence. Comparing this blissful
state with their own degenerate rule of
blood and iron, in which all the vices
had supplanted virtue, they have
handed it down to us as "rhe Golden
Age" which, they deplored, could nev-
er come again.
This retrospective fable, however, of
Pagan writers, the Hebrew Prophet
saw as future reality. In his vision,
the God Of Peace was to take the place
of the heather deity, "and to teach us
of His ways. And He shall
judge among the nations and shall re-
buke many people; and they shall
beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war
any more"
1t is possible that this glowing
prophesy of Isaiah, although delivered
twenty-six centuries ago. may yet be
fulfilled, but not, as he imagined,
through religious influence. No more
potential personality than Jesus Christ
has ever appeared, yet nineteen CEN
turies of His teaching have done little
or nothing to suppress war, even
among His professed followers. Age
after age the earth has been drenched
with the blood of Christians, slain by
their brethren; and those who bore
His name have at such times been
animated by the hatreds and ferocity
of heather savages. The increased in
telligence and accumulated knowledge
of the most civilized nations have
been exercised in developing greater
means of destruction, and the fruits of
every industry and the lives OF hapless
millions have been squandered in wan
ton or needless wars. At the present
moment Europe is an armed camp
ready for slaughter. Of her sixty
million men twelve millions are
trained soldiers. And the New World
has recently entered on the fatal ca
reer of the Old. But remote and
comparatively Insignificant contest is
sufficient to dislocate the delicate So
cial machinery of every civilized state,
and a dilatory contest carries famine
to the hearths of the poor, thousands
of miles from the conflict. In vari-
Gus countries in both hemispheres,
starving men and women are rioting
for bread; what they really want is
peace.
Can nothing be done, then, to make
war more difficult? Is the Golden
Age to be merely poetic dream, never
to be in any degree realized? We
trust not. For, if we mistake not, the
first faint streak of the brighter dawn
is breaking. In both the Old and the
New World men of clear heads and
generous hearts are looking forward to
q confederation of the English-speak-
ing peoples. And the slightest con-
sideration of the matter must convince
every unprejudiced mind that the
speedy accomplishment of an Anglo
American Alliance, based upon sound,
equitable, and permanent principles,
will lay the foundation of a new era,
one which, perchance, may be crowned
by universal and perennial peace.
America is only younger England,
moving in wider range with a freer
step. Excepting the immigrants of
alien tongues, her people have the
svme blood and traditions, the same
literature and habits, the same proud
history and aims, as the mother coun-
try. In religion, in political and mu-
nicipal freedom, in inventive genius
and commercial and industrial eager.
ness, they are alike. Great Britain's
purchases from the United States from
April 30th, 1897, to April 3Oth, 1898,
amounted to El1s,OOO,OOO, or nearly
one-half of the total American exports;
in other words, almost as much rs was
purchased by all the rest of the world.
Her colonies and India purchased in
the preceding year IL per cent. Thus
about 60 per cent. of all their exports
were bought by Great Britain and 9TH
er parts of the British Empire. AS
the balance OF trade is very largely in
their favor, the difference provides
them with the means of making cash
investments in any part of the world,
and of purchasing in other countries,
if need be, beyond the amount of their
aypOrfS IN than, Thus THAR ;nvnonco