The Republican journal., 1899-02-02
Americas World Influence.
Europe is beginning to CRASH the

Europe is beginning to grasp the fact
that the United States is an influential
member of the family of nations, but if
does not grasp the whole of the fact or ap-
prehend its full significance. The latest
issue of the London Spectator has an
article which says that the dominant
fact of the year 1898 was the rise in the
position of the English speaking peoples )"
1t remarks that "on the other side of the
Atlantic the people of the United States
moving as if they were forced on by some
impulse from without, with minute
army in being, President specially VOW
| ed to peace, and Minister of War most
kindly described as short sighted anna
teur, crushed the ancient monarchy of
Spain almost without effort and seated
themselves on great islands in the Garth
bean and the Pacific,'' and adds that
America has become within one year. in
the eyes of those who control armies
and fleets, almost a new and coneeivab ly
a dangerous power.' Then it says: "The
English speaking races, disregarded in
1897, are in 1898 regarded as the potential
equals in combination of all the rest of
| the world.''
| 1t is unquestionably true that the chan.
ter which the United States added to the
| worlds history in 1898 has been a revela-
ton to the rest of the nations, and has
UNNECESSARILY increased the prestige of
the English speaking races, for Eugland's
sympathy with the United States when
the other nations were more or less un-
friendly has been the means of shedding
on England, by reflection, a little of the
glory which the United States gained.
Moreover, in the African campaign Eng
land gained glory of her own, which re-
stored her at once to the position of in
fiuence which she held at the opening of
the present century, during the DAYS of
Pitt, and about two thirds of a century
later in the times of Palmerston and Dis
raeli. The glory of the English speaking
races, however, dates back further than
1885, and America had a far larger share
in that glory than the world then or since
clearly realized ''We are forced to ask
every morning what victory there is, -
said Horace Walpole, in 1859, ''for fear
we may miss one" A strong basis of
truth underlald that jocose remark No
other country had ever played so glorious
part in the history of the world as Eng
land had been playing for a year or two
at that time, and her American colonies
bore prominent share in the work which
that country performed.
At the time when Walpole spoke the
victories had just taken place which
drove France out of North America, and
saved the greater and better part of the
New World to Anglo Saxon civilization.
England had been gaining victories in
Europe and Asia as well as in America
for the struggle which was drawing to
close at that time of the Seven Years
War, but the part of the conflict which
took place in the New World was that
part which had the greatest interest for
England. In the New World the colonies
which few years later became the
United States were far more prominent in
the struggle than was England herself
and forced England into it. Two. thirds 1
of the army which fought Eugland's bat
ties in the New World in that conflict
we're contributed by the colonies. the