BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-10
SAN JUAN, OCTOBER 10
The Anglo Saxon.

The Anglo-Saxon.
The Persistency With Which The
French Misunderstood the Cau-
ses of His Success.
(Pierre de Cougertin in the Paris Figaro
To-day and under Our very eyes
rational and inevitable evolution is
being accomplished with the slowness
inherent in this class of phenomena.
:. The drawing together of the different
branches of the great Anglo-SaXon ia
mily is a certain fact. For a long time
those who are acquainted with the
Americans beyond the making of tour
of few weeks with no knowledge of
their history OF language have perceiv-
ed the symptoms of this drawing toge-
ther to which the young communities of
Australia are lending ready hand.
But Our press will not understand 1t.
1t uses unimportant facts which come
from arguments in favor Of its favorite
thesis: the irreconcilable antagonism OF
the English and the Americans. They
detest each other. They are jealous of
each other. That always has been and
always will be. 1t considers this an ac-
copied fact.
The ripe fruits the white czar
the irreconcllable Anglo-Amerlcan en-
nifty arc merely different forms of the
same illusion which IS terribly tenacious
since the successive denials of events
fail to end it. France does not under
stand whence comes the Anglo-SaXon
strength, and being Ignorant of the
source, it is incapable of calculating the
effects. This term Anglo-Saxon' has
the gift Of worrying certain persons,
and it is, in fact, absurd. But if the
name is iii chosen, the thing Itself must
be named, ior it exists. An English
man with rather cheap wit, recently
asked to be shown an Anglo-SaXon be-
cause he did not know how it was
made >. 1t appears that Sir Wilfrid
Laurier kno rs what it is, for his impec-
able French has not recoiled from the
frequent employment Of this term. And
ask myself how to translate the signi-
fcant apostrophe which an Australian
minister lately launched at Yankee as
senblage amid greag applause. You
( and we" he sad, "will take care to
Npake the Pacific ocsan' a Bfiti5h lake :.
TganSlat2, if you will will; "un lac brit
tahque =; I like Aug,o-Saxon better
Dec&sSe with Us the word "bfittaniqle"
IS molAoften applied to the nation than
10 the raoS; but again, waat matters
the term If We agree on its significance?
But this is prsci elv what we dc not.
The French, who have no. been able to
see that England for the fifty years in
which the Empire ,-1------le,,sr7;s1ec Ia ec
about her has been constantly stTepg-
theniag herself, wish no longer to und-
erstand the range of the Anglo-Saxon
movement. They will perceive the
edi6ce when the keystone has been
placed. This will be the last stage OF
their, illusion. Well you will say, must
one admit without dis.ou The dogma
of Anglo-SaXon superiority? Not at
all. For myself, Hho was, | lbink, one
of the first to admirs the teachings OF
Thomas Arnold and Edward 'rhring
and to give TO nv admiration a pract-
1cal form, guard against tae use Of
this word. II tnere. are inferior races,
superiority, thank God belongs to no
single r2ceI ana modern civiizat on
progresses by the fruitful emulation Of
several races which have, each of them,
the right to claim certain superioriIies.
A people can rise to very high stand
ard by various methods.
Examples of this abound Anglo
Saxonlsnl does not represent perfection,
but 1t is great. a very great force, and
as such must be known and understood.
In the world of to-day ii is foolish to
allow a few tons dynamite to be rnanu-
factured next door without II sing 10 get
the formula. If, having got it, you find
on examination that it is not 50 good
as the one you use 50 much the better.
10 this point, IN respect to Anglo
Saxon dynamite, we have no. arrived
The unfortunate word of Napoleon still
weighs heavily on US. In qualifying as
"shopkeepefs adyersaries whose somb-
re tenacity lrritated him, he has for
century kept Cur doubt, the emperor
never reflected, nor the spectacle Of i
exact and convincing contenl ooraneous
events, have been able to open our eyes
We peTsst III seeing in civilization
which rests, on the contrary, on a foln-
dation Nhicb is essentially moral. I'll
IS true that tlls commercial success Of
the Americans and Australians COMING
after those Of the English are Of a. nata5
rel concsal, at first thought, this capital
tact. Who does not understand how
too intense material life, by the appeti-
ties It excites, the vices it develops and,
above all by the inevitable rivaIriSs II
brings might tend 70 separate races and +
divide empires rather than unity andIl
cement thein2 We follow this reas9nzll
ing, and that IS why We INCREASINGLY |