The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-02
EUROPE PANIC STRICKEN
EFFECT OF AMERICAN PROGRESS
ON THE OLD-wORLD NATIONS.
They Do Not Like the Great Republic,
and Its Growing Importance They
Regard as Real Peril.

Sydney Brooks, in Atlantic monthly.
The great European question of the pres
ent moment is certainly America. The
United States is occupying the second
thoughts of English and continental states
men more continuously to-day than ever
before. America is reaching out, with an
intensely irritating consciousness OF sue
cess for the commercial supremacy Of the
world, and her voice is raised among
those of the decisive nations of the earth
i'm the settlement of international ques-
tions. All this is disquieting and perplex-
ing enough to Europe, which is woefully
misinformed upon America and all things
American.
Just when the excessive production of
cereals and meat in America, Argentina,
India and even Australia, but chiefly in
America, has half strangled the agricul-
turists of middle Europe. the remaining
workers employed in manufactures find
themselves ominously threatened by the
competition of American artisans. The de-
cline of European agriculture has been the
familiar nightmare of the past generation,
but the intrusion of the American manu-
facturer has a doubly sinister significance.
1t blocks up the one road of escape open
to Europe, and chokes the source on which
she is relying to make good her natural
deficiencies.
COMPETITION CRUSHING.
With the stress of foreign competition in
the bare necessities of life growing keener
and yet keener, the production of food
under European conditions, it is feared,
must become in the end Improbable. The
landlords will be ruined, and the peasantry
forced back into that primitive stage of
civilization in which men eat only what
they grow, clothe themselves In their own
wool and flax, and, having margin to
fall back upon, are incapable OF commerce.
The danger has been foreseen and pre-
pared for in the way England met it fifty
years ago. in the way NJ. White is hoping
TO meet il to-day in Russia-by vast eX-
tension of manufactures, by calling on the
towns to redress the adverse balance of the
country In England trade has gained
what agriculture has lost. What Europe
is now painfully realizing is that if Amerf-
can manufactures are 10 undersel the man
ufacturer as completely as American prod
ducts have undersold the farmer, the hope
of restoring national prosperity by bring
ing a fresh and buoyant industrialism TO
the aid of a decaying agriculture must be
given up.
To Count Goluchowsh belongs the honor
of being the first responsible statesman
in Europe to sound a note of warning.
Speaking to the parliamentary delegations
in November, 1897. the Austro- Hungarian
foreign minister declared the very exist
/
Staked upon their power to defend them
selves fighting shoulder TO shoulder,
against "tranSoceanic competition" That
speech may be looked upon as the begin
ming of the anti-American movement on
the continent. Hardly a chamber OF COM
merce meets anywhere in Germany, Aus
| tria Hungary without some discussion
taking place on American competition.
| Though Count GoluchOwski gave the move
ment it's first impulse. ii is not the states
men, but the people themselves, and espe-
| cially the industrial and commercial ele-
| ments, that have maintained and expanded
! il. In the shape OF q 'Pan-European COM
/ bine" against American aggressiveness Ii
! had from the start obvious attractive
ness for the populace. Nothing came OF it !;
/ nothing ever can come of IL so long as the
| political map Of Europe remains IL is.
I To talk of Pan-Europe is easy enough, but
! to apply the suggestion in practice, to rec
| Oncile the divergent interests, and. above
! all, to get England to join the coalition, is
! quite another matter. So long as England
! has TO rely upon America for two-thirds
! of her food supply, self-interest of the
/ most fragrant and peremptory kind for
/ bids her the futile luxury of taking part
! in the Weltboycott Of American products.
PAN-EUROPE POWERLESS.
Extensively, Pan-Europe dare do nothing
It might forbid the Importation of Ameri-
can food. but at what cost. AT the cost
! inevitably OF raising the price OF bread 10
the point of revolution II might also
! close the continent against American man
ufactures; but the bulk OF Europe is agri-
| cultural and would gain nothing thereby
| or. finally. il might do both-fence the
] continent around with a tight wall place
/ an impossible duty on American products
/ as well as American goods. and TO restrict
! all trade 10 continental Europeans in a des-
perate effort 10 find out whether nations
/ cannot live by taking in one another :
washing All these schemes were preached
AID to them, OF course, was added the pet