The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-07

us as an industrial center by the enlarge
ment and extension OF our trade.
Within the past year or so new coun-
try has opened up to the world of com
merce and industry. The Orient has
awakened from the profound sleep which
enwrapped the energies Of its people for
centuries. The greatest minds in the do
main of commerce point unanimously to
the East as the great market for Amer
lean manufactured products. We in st.
Paul are on the very highway which leads
TO the center of Oriental activity. We
are nearer to the Pacific coast, either by
land or water, than any other great Amer
lean city, save alone those actually on
the coast 1t will be our fault, If with our
unexcelled advantages Of location and
natural production. we let the opportunity
which the opening OF the Orient bespeaks
pass US by.
With the opening of the new century
St Paul should have cast aside the tram
mels which it has worn for SO long and
engage seriously once more in the great
race for municipal progress and suprem-
acy which will then be in active progress.
TOWARD GERMAN UNIFICATIoN.
The celebrations which have been in
progress in Berlin for some days past
have probably no particular national or
international significance aside from the
coming of age of the prospective heir
to the imperial crown of Germany.
The close and apparently exceptionally
friendly relations which are shown to
subsist between the two emperors will
naturally, however, give rise to much
! speculation, not only in newspaper cir
cles on the continent, as we'll as in the
United States, but among diplomats, con-
cerning the real significance Of the occa-
sion.
Whatever occult force is operating, or
whether there is anything involved save
as appears on the surface, the occasion is
certain to arouse speculation concerning
the future relations Of Germany and AUS
/ tria. They are branches of the great
Germanic national family. The national
kinship has long survived the. disappear
ance of the Holy Roman Empire. The
line of demarcation between the two
great divisions of the human family, the,
Slav and the Teuton, is as distinct today
as it has been at any time in centuries.
I<ingIy dynasty has not sufficed to keep
the fragments Of the great Germanic race
apart. The German empire stands for
the aspirations of The German people
for national unity. The empire Of Will
liam embodies the unifcation of Germany
and Germans That Of Franz Josef SYM
bolizes the difficulty, If not the impossi-.
bility, of preventing national sentiment
from seeking It's true level in national
unfication. Disntegration Is the visible
fate of the Austrian empire. Concentra-
ton and still further concentration of ma
tional sentiment and energy is the spirit
of the rule of the younger emperor
1t would be- little more than idle spec
ulation to dwell upon what may result
when the great bond which has held to-
gether the discordant elements of nation
al life which constitute the Austrian en-
pire-the personal influence of Franz Jo-
sef-no longer prevails The three great
forces in the life Of the Austrian empire,
the Hungarian. the Bohemian and the
German, are today at war for the recog-
nition of the national identity of each.
Yet the establishment of such separate
national entities is utterly inconsistent
with the continuance of the existing or
der. Wherever German is to be found,
his feelings and sympathies lead him-to-
ward the great expression of German uni
ty which is embodied in the empire of
the Hohenzollerns.
1t is neither unnatural nor unreasonable
to think that some day, whether through
fire and sword or through peaceful ar
bitrament Of national tendency and SEN
timent, the processes of dis.ntegration
which we see in operation in the life OF
the Austrian empire may result in the
still further unification of tie German
race. If we regard the greatest tendency
of our time in the direction of national
and individual effort anKe-the tendency
toward consolidation-it is not a wholly
remote outlook that the existing German
and Russian empires may absorb the
Slav and German elements of that empire,
which it is now found so difficult to
reconcile. Certain it seems that the cul-
tivation of closer relations between the
heads of the two empires is sure to pro-
mote rather than to retard the ultimate
drifting together of the two branches of
the German race which now acknowl-
edge fealty respectively to the German
and the Austrian empires
MAKE AN END OF 1T.
The project for. the establishment of