The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-28
NATIONALITY VS.. IMPERIALISM.

NATIONALITY VS.. IMPERIALISM.
One of the most momentous, as 1t is
one of the most remarkable, features of
International concerns today is the one
that, while the great powers of the world,
as represented by their governments, are
intent on schemes of imperialism, the
spirit of nationality is perhaps more self
assertive than it has ever been, at least
since the era of more or less abortive rev.
olutions marked by the year 1S4S.
; The African Dutch withstand the i'm
perialist policies Of Britain with a meas
ure of heroism which to many minds re-
calls the gIories of Marathon The people
of Cuba stand on the threshold OF nation
al existence. Ireland still remains unrec-
onciled The Tagal natives of the island
of Luzon have struggled on for many
months in the assertion~of a determina-
ton that their inchoate nationality shall
not be swallowed up in the vortex of
American democracy. While the cabinets
of Continental Europe look with doubt
and greed to the day which many of them
regard as inevitable when the polyglot
empire of Austria will break in pieces
and its shattered fragments become the
objects of new territorial scramble, the
distinctive Austrian, the Bohemian AMI
the Magyar populations were never more
insistent than today for the recognition
of their respective rights of nationality.
Even poor Poland and her children dream
still the dream of Polish freedom The
guage, which, until within the past dec
ade, might be thought never to have
reached the dignity of aught more than
q literary fad has spread itself to even
the mountains of Wales and the high
lands of Scotland.
Whatever these various movements may
avail, the spirit which underlies them is
the same spirit which has found express
sion among every people who have play
ed a conspicuous part in the worlds lis
tory-the spirit of individual liberty find
national autonomy.
Nothing short Of the establishment Of
peace as the arbiter of International dis
putes can ever prevent the clash of rival
forces presented by the Slavic and Ger
manic influences. Today England has
aroused the hostility of every nation In
rd
is being suppressed by the strong hand
of the emperor, France makes no pretense
of her bitter ill-will; while Russian
statesmen see, or affect to see, in every
pose to dominate the commercial and po-
liticaI interests of the entire world as
completely as ever Rome so dominated In
the strongest days of the Caesars.
Those who abide by the old theory of
the right of national liberty will have but
little freedom of choice among the vari-
Gus forms Of Imperialism now finding
such powerful assertion, and of which our
own attempt in the Philippines is but an
ignob1e imitation. Aside from mere ma
tional fragments Of Europe represented
by the weaker nations, and the southern
half of this continent. five great nations
control the world among them Disre-
garding the American, the French, the
Germanic, the British and the Slavic
races. the rest are but of little moment.
1t is the era of concentration, In national
as in industrial life; and with the tenden-
cy toward absorption continuing undis-
turbed in national concerns, 1t may not be
so remote as it appears when the final
struggle will come
1t is not toward the millennium that all
this tends. It's way Is not toward the
Universal Brotherhood of Man, nor even
toward the Federation of Nations Of
which poets have sung. 1t is simply the
assertion of the power Of subjugation,
and In its ultimate results promises as
little for individual or national freedom
as does the same tendency in industrial
concerns favor economic liberty or social
content.
IF 10 hard I'm understand whv so MANY