Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-11-16
FREELAND, PA, NOVEMBER 16, 1899
No American Sympathy
From the Philadelphia North American

No American sympathy.
From the Philadelphia North American.
Prime Minister Salisbury in his
speech at the Lord Mayors banquet on
Thursday night, speaking of the South
African situation and the attitude of
foreign nations toward England, said:
For several years our relations with
and cordial feelings toward our kins-
men on the other side of the Atlantic
have been constantly growing, and
though we neither interfere in the af
fairs of their continent nor they inter
fere in the affairs of ours, we feel we
can now always look for sympathy and
a fair hearing among those who share
with us so vast mission for the ad-
vancement of mankind.
That is an echo of the English press,
which after the tidings OF each British
defeat at the hands of the Beers has
shed a few gentle tears of gratitude for
the sympathy the disaster evoked from
America. From what part of the
United States these comforting express
sions come has not been disclosed.
Lord Salisbury and our esteemed CON
temporaries of England deceive them
selves or seek to deceive the English
people. While it is quite true that
new feeling of friendliness for Great
Britain has been developed here because
of her attitude during our trouble with
Spain, there should be no mistake about
the view taken by the American people
OF the South African business. They
sympathize heartily with the Boers-so
heartily, indeed, that their victories
have awakened more interest and given
more pleasure by far than news of
Filipino defeats and slaughters does.
Were Americans not to side with the
Beers they would be false to the prn-
ciples and traditions which are at the
heart of our national life. Americans
believe that men have a right to govern
themselves, and always they have been
warmly sympathetic with any people
engaged iu fighting for independence.
1t is monarchy against republic in
South Africa; it is the strong against
the weak, and Americans are with the
weak and against monarchy in such
struggle.
Lord Salisbury may talk as largely as
he likes about the "vast mission for the
advancement of mankind" in which he
is good enough to say we are going
shares with England, but phrases are
not so convincing as facts. And the
cold fact is that England is on a robber
raid in Africa-on raid to destroy a
peoples liberty in order that she may at
leisure plunder them of their gold and
diamond mines in the interest of the
European Jay Goulds and Coils Hunt
ingtons, who have made so many mil
lions out of the country that they are
infiamed by their greed to demand it all
No doubt in the long run civilization
will be gamer by the overthrow of the
slowgoing Beers and their absorption or
elimination. But the manner in which
England is discharging this particular
part of her vast mission for the ad-
vancement of mankind" is as innocent
OF moral color as any freebootng eX-
position that was ever undertaken by
the buccaneers of the Spanish main.
She is a missionary in the same sense
as is the trader who, by carrying rum to
savages, kills them off and makes room
for white men. 1t is not the improve
ment OF the population by substitution
that the trader is thinking Of but the
profits on his rum.
Canting OF noble purposes in order to
cover sordid ones is not an exclusively
British practice, but the English are
adopts at it. Lord Salisbury's high
lanBuaRe ABOUT IL vast mission lOf the
advancement of mankind does not de-
lude anybody on this side of the At
lantic. There is war in the TransvaaI
because England has resolved to stea
the country. Americans are grateful
to Great Britain for her recent gooC
will, but to ask in return that we shal
applaud her brigandage in South Africa
is to demand price that Americans
will not pay.
Enrtu In m q tns of tho nhin ntn tn nri,nr