New-York tribune., 1900-09-03
A NEW LINK BETWEEN NATIONS

The worlds wonder Of yesterday IL the COM
monplace of to-day. There are those who can
remember when the proposition TO span the AT
lantic Ocean with telegraph wires was regarded
as a madmans phantasy. There are more VINO
can remember the thrill of wonder, admiration
and awe that swept over MANKIND "hep tne
work was done and the first messages were
transmitted between the Queen OF England ana
the President Of the United States. There are
many who can remember when, long after that
first short lived triumph, transatlantic teleg-
raphy was at last fully and permanently estaD-
ushed and the legend of five days later
from Europe over mail advices and clippings
from foreign papers two weeks old gave place
to "by cable" over news that appeared here
simultaneously with it's publication in the Old
World. To-day, who can tell without inquiry
or Cooking it up" the number of cables that
now span the Atlantic and the order in which
tbev were laid? And to-day the laying and
opening of a new cable provokes scarcely a
ripple of popular notice, and Is recorded In
paragraphs fewer than the pages which would
once have been eagerly devoted to 1t.
The latest of the cables is worthy. however,
of more than such meagre attention. 1t is the
first direct cable between Germany and the
United States The earliest cables connected us
with Great Britain. Later one was laid directly
to the shore of France. Now Germany is the
third country of the Old World thus to be linked
to the New The fact is a significant and an
auspicious one, well warranting the felicitations
which the German Emperor and the President
of the United States have exchanged upon it.
Those whose memories extend back thirty or
forty years can perceive a great contrast be-
tween those times and these in the knowledge
and appreciation which Europe and America
have Of each other and in the sympathy which
exists between them. The change is due to
various causes but to none, probably, more
than to the Atlantic cables The Improvement
of steamships and the increase of travel have
done much but where one has actually travelled
abroad thousand have been enlightened by
reading the daily cable news. By this process
Anglo-American relations have most profited,
largely because Of the community of language,
but also because of the fact that the first cable
was and down to the present most of the
cables are. between Great Britain and America.
The opening of a direct French cable similarly
increased mutual knowledge and sympathy be-
| tween France and the United States And now.
happily, a similar bond is established between
this country and that great German Fatherland
| from which so large and so valuable share or
! our population has been derived.
It is, we have said an auspicious event. We
shall fail to regard It Alright if we do not also
| perceive It to be an event that adds TO our re-
sponsibilties and obligations. The hermit may
be helot if he wills, without offence to neigh
| bors The man, or the nation, that Is a mem
| Der of a community gives hostages for good
behavior And the more dense the community
is and the closer his intercourse with his neigh
bors becomes, the greater is the responsibility
and the stronger are the obligations to main
tain department void OF offence. Both nations
will do we'll, therefore, to remember that they
| are now at the two ends of the same wire, and
| that what is whispered in the closet in one is
likely TO be shouted upon the housetops in the
other Thus mindful, and thus circumspect, we
may confidently hope to see closer communica-
tons make closer friends un.Ii the deep hidden
strands shall seem not mere bits of cold, busi
ness mechanism, but vital cords, linking not
| only shore to shore, but nation unto nation.