Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-31
EXPECT Us 10 STAND By THEN,
Americas Position in the Transvaa
War.

From the London Spectator.
Russia has nothing to gain by at
lacking Us just now. No doubt she
alone of the great powers could at
tack us successfully, for she alone can
enter India by land, but that Russia
should choose this moment for such
an act is practically incredible. It
suits neither with the aims of Russia's
chief politicians nor with the temper
ament of the Emperor. The other
great powers will certainly neither at
tack us themselves nor lend their aid
to any otEer assailant. Neither Aus
tria- Hungary nor Italy would dream OF
such action.
AS to America, the answer is, Il
course, even more certain. 1t is posi-
BILE that a portion of the American peo-
pie may make the mistake which
portion of our people made during the
war of the North and South. Just as
Mr. Gladstone declared that the North
was fighting for empire and the South
for freedom, so some Americans, sin
cere but mistaken, may imagine that
we are now going to fight for empire
and the Beers for freedom. They will
forget the wrongs of the Outlanders, as
we forgot the wrongs of the slaves,
and fail to understand who are the peo-
pie rightly struggling to be free. But
we are not afraid of the nation as
whole making this blunder. A people
so liberal to all newcomers, a people
who in their wisdom and their justice
have never tried to set up an Out
! lander caste, are not likely to sympa-
thize for long with the Boer oligarchy.
And, in any case. the criticism we
get from America will be the criticism
Of friends, not of enemies. Some
Americans may be misled into calling
us tyrants, but if any attempt were
made by the powers of Europe to COM
bine against us, we should never have
a moments doubt as to the part that
would be played by our own flesh and
blood Even if they do not yet under
stand rightly what we did last tA7ar,
and even if the Spanish-American war
had never been fought, they would for
| bid any attempt at a coalition to injure
England The Anglo-Saxon race is not
going to allow itself to be destroyed
in detail. If one-half is attacked by
combination of powers beyond its
strength, the other half will know and
do its duty. Probably there would be
NO need for active Intervention by
America even if we were attacked by
France, Germany and Russia together
the combination is in reality impos-
I sible, and we only name it for the pur-
poses of argument, or, rather, illustra-
tion-but the knowledge that in the
last resort America would be at our
side would wither any combination al
most as soon as it was made
German military men may say that
American armies are only badly-leds
mobs of civilians masquerading in ugly
uniforms and that they can be safely
neglected, but somehow or other we
fancy that the safest form of neglect
would be held to be the avoiding Of
any contact or conflict with the afore-
said mobs. There is yet another rea-
son why combination of powers being
formed to humble England is most I'M
likely. The powers do not love each
other so unselfishly that they want to
see any one of them aggrandized by
the fall OF England And vet one pow
er must be enormously strengthened
, by our destruction. If the powers fight
us, they must count on destroying us.
Were England destroyed her next-door
neighbor would rise immensely in i'm
portance-far more in proportion than
would Germany. But is there anv
power on the continent which would
feel safer and happier with France in
a paramount, or nearly paramount, 20
si-ion? Ne; Europe will not kill Eng
land, her best customer. and a power
which. at any rate never invades. in
order to make France supreme.