The times., 1898-06-25
Our Russian Relations.

Our Russian Relations.
The short formal speech which Count
Cassini made on Thursday on his pres
entation to President Mckinley as the
first ambassador Of the Car near this
Government, under ordinary circum-
stances might be passed by as merely
matter Of diplomatic courtesy. and quite
perfunctory in its intent and mean
ing. We should have so regarded it. if
this country We're at peace and bound
to its former traditions of isolated pro-
vincialism. But, since Count Cassini
was gazetted TO Washington some
months ago, the face of the world, as
far as diplomatic and international con-
siderations are concerned, has COM
pletely changed.
Then we were a remote nation of self
glorifying farmers, traders. and manu-
facturers. piling up surplus products to
compete with all the other producing
nations. and steadily taking the bread
out Of the mouths of rival peoples;
never thinking that the latter might,
sometime, forcibly object. Then we
were living in our old fools paradise of
Chinese exclusion: congratulating our
selves that We needed neither army nor
navy, for the whole of creation could
not land troops enough to whip US at
home, while. certainly, we would never
wish to go anywhere. or to carry our
commerce beyond the market town,
the mecca Of each bucoIic statesman's S
commercial ideal
Now, when the Russian ambassador
comes. and We are heartily sorry that
he did not reach our shores before war
was declared, he finds the Western Re
/ public with its worm-eaten garb of ig-
! norant provincialism thrown off. its
sons armed for strife, its Golfers open
/ for the maintenance of our rights and
/ interests, and its seventy million people
! determined that il shall take its place
/ once and for all time as a world power,
intelligently accepting all the response
/ bilities and risks that such an attitude
1 and policy may entail.
The penetrating eye Of Russian diplo-
macy has not been blind to the transi-
/ ton, nor its intelligence 20 the fact that
it must be counted with in the future
/ course and balance of international re-
Iations. Hence words spoken in the
! formal interchange of state civilities,
/ on such an occasion as the reception of
! an ambassador from a great power,
/ vastly interested in the cosmic problem
| in which we are just becoming an ac-
! tive and important factor, derive force
! and significance from the surrounding
/ conditions that they would not have
! otherwise.
From this point of view, 1t is salts
/ factory and encouraging to note that,
| in his address to the President. Count
! Cassini laid particular stress upon the
/ friendly relations which have subsisted
between Russia and the United States
since the foundation of our Govern
/ ment, a friendship never broken, and
! never in the slightest degree clouded d
! by any misunderstanding. These rela-
| tions. as his excellency the Russian am
/ bassador truly said, have been biased
/ alike upon a large and far-seeing pO-
/ litical wisdom and upon an unquestion-
/ able sympathy"
From these and other kindly words of
! greeting from Count Cassini, speaking
/ for his majesty. the Emperor Nicholas
we augur good things. They were
/ spoken with full knowledge that the
policy and purposes of the American
/ people, in the face of present and i'm
pending emergencies. are frankly be-
/ fore the world without concealment OF
reservation in any direction. The gov
! ernment of Russia, and all other pow
ers. would have been blind not to accept
/ the evidence which has been offered
during the past two months that this
/ country, while bent upon preserving the
/ peace with all of its European neigh
bors, has definitely determined upon
a program which it is willing to make
any necessary sacrifice, military OIL
| financial, to carry out. IT insists upon
retention Of the Philippine Islands and
possession of Porto Rico. upon the in
| dependence of Cuba, the annexation oi
! Hawaii, and the national construction
and control of the Nicaragua canal.
i None of these things, singly or all to.
| gether, as far as we can see could, il
the remctest sense antagoniZe the com.
mercial or political interests Of the Rus
sian empire. One or another of then
may be unacceptable TO other powers
But if they are agreeable to Russia
there is not a chance but that, with tn.
two greatest civilized populations of th'
earth united by an amicable under
standing. the two controlling breaC
producers content with each other
separate development, imperial expan
sion, and prosperity, the rest of th
nations will accept the situation witt
complacency.
We are happy in being able to lool
forward to the maintenance and furthe
growth of that amity and confldenc
which has always characterized our re
lations with Russia, and which is in
trinsically better thing than forma
alliances, fraught as they generally ar
with fr!ctional complications and conse
quences.
Alliances sometimes become vital.
necessary to governments placed a
ours might be at any time, as resul