The Republican journal., 1900-02-01
--A 49, - -
John and Jonathan.

They are Pretty Good Friends Nowadays.
At time when the Continent rings
with denunciations of this country, evil
dently written by persons who have never
taken the trouble to inform themselves
concerning the facts of the struggle in
South Africa, it is very cheering and re-
freshing of the English people to note the
sympathy and the intelligent compre-
hension manifested in the United States.
We should prize the American sympathy
in any case, but it becomes doubly CRATE
fu | when it is manifestly based upon de-
liberate and well-informed judgment of
the essential merits of the quarrel, as
we'll as upon reciprocation OF the kindly
feelings with which we in this country
regard American aims and enterprises.
Our colonies have shown in the most un-
mistakable manner what is the verdict of
English speaking communities within the
Empire. They have amply confirmed the
judgment of the people of this country,
and have thereby Indefinitely strengthened
our moral position in the eye of the world.
But our satisfac tion could not have been
complete had the great English speaking
community outside the Empire withheld
| sympathy and appreciation. Happily
| there is no reason to fear that it will
withhold either The bulk of American
opinion is ranging itself as heartily upon
our side in the present quarrel as was
English opinion on the side of America
in her crusade against misgovernment in
Cuba. In both cases there was room for
misconceptions, and in both cases the
political aptitude fos!ered by free speech
| and free institutions has enabled the mass
/ of the people in England and in America
| to disregard the superficial aspects of the
| questions, and to penetrate TO the essen
| tial and permanent conditions. We say
| the mass of the people because in both
cases, as must happen in all cases of the
| kind, there is minority, vocal out of
proportion to its importance, which never
] gets beyond the mere husks of the con-
! troversy. There We're d few people in
England who, in the case of the war with
Spain, were content with SentimentalismS
! about a powerful state attacking weak
one, and with techncalities concerning
j the right of the Americans to interfere in
/ the affairs of another nation. There were,
If we remember Alright, one or two Amer
/ leans unfortunate enough to meet only
| these people in their travels in this coun-
try, and ready accordingly to maintain
that British sympathy was with Spain.
| SO there are some people in America who
sentimentalize about weak communities
and republican forms of government, and
who never get any nearer the fundamen-
tai facts and permanent conditions than
! Mr.. Courtney or Mr. Morley. Also there
are unfortunate travelling Englishmen
who mistake these Intellectual persons for
the American people, and who tell us ac
,frlx t1,yc
the Beers.
But in both cases the real opinion of the
community here and in America has been
formed upon the broad issues. The Eng
lish people saw that America stood for
freedom, good government and progress,
while Spain represented incapacity in adj
ministration, the oppression of subject
races and the sterilization and bankrupt
cy of a country possessing all the elements
of wealth and prosperity. They did not
trouble themselves about parchments, if
| there were any upon which international
jurists might assert or deny the light of
the United States to put an end to cry
| ing evil at their gates. They did not en-
| ter into the minute analysis of the nego-
! tiatonS, or inquire whether President Nc
kinley used the new diplomacy or the old.
+ They saw that great and kindred people,
! speaking tnelr own ideal language ana
/ pursuing their own ideal of government
/ and of life, had come to the conclusion
| that the Cuban survival from the Middle
! Ages could not be tolerated any longer.
They accordingly gave their sympathy to
! that kindred people, and counted them
, selves happy that they had it in their
power to make sympathy useful by giving
! pause to those who We're itching to inter
| fere. 1t is the same in America day.
The American people are not blinded by
! the accident that the Transvaal calls itself
a republic. They know that every essen
tial attribute of republic is wanting,
that the government is corrupt oligarchy
that the majority of the inhabitants have
no political and hardly any civil rights,
that the dfsfranchisei and oppressed ma
jority have yet to pay practically all the
expenses of the administration that op-'
presses them, and, finally, that the Boer
government standing for all that is retro
gres>ive and impossible is armed to the
teeth and prepared to extend it's sway
over the whole of South Africa. They
know that England stands for the equal
laws, the individual freedom, the liberal
opportunity, and the energetic progress
which make up their own republican ideal
and as England pumped for the United
States SO do the United States now plump
for England, without regard to the fine
drawn technicalities of the attorney.
| London Times