The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-10-27
Neptune's Heirs Appa rent.


|"<HE MONROE doctrine has
perennial interest for for
Il eign speculative politician
and publicsts, much greate
now than ever 1t had before. 1.-THE doc
trine," says Sir Frederick Pollock II
lis "A living power because 1t has beef
adopted by the government and peop
of the United States" This is true
and Sir Frederick means it in a con
temporaneously vital sense There arr
many other living issues in the United
states of universal Importance anc
concrete interest to Europe which ar,
practically unnoticed. or IL referred t,
by its press are merely criticised a!
primarily domestic affairs which ulti
mately must be entirely regulated by
the experience and Judgment of tn,
American people. although they affect
the fundamental economic status of the
most powerful and progressive states
of the Old World. The reason is not
far to seek or difficult to discover. The
| Weltpolitik proclaimed by the German
I emperor and which he is consistently
seeking to shape by building a naval
armament which will transform the
empire into a first class maritime as
we'll as military power. must be con-
summated at the expense, if not neces-
sarily to the detrment, of Great Br-
| tain, Russia. France as colonial en-
! pires or of the United States as the
trustee of the inviolable integrity of
| the American continent. The waste
| lands of the world. if not occupied, are
| already pre-empted. Weltpolitik is a
If the policy which it implies was one
of commercial expansion so far as this
country is affected by the idea and the
impulse that has been given to it by
the kaiser. we should regard it with
stole equanimty. We can meet Ger
man competition in the markets of the
world on perfectly friendly and po-
litically unbiased footing. But Welt
politik means much more than this. 1t
pre-Supposes not merely colonial mar
kets, but colonies and colonial sub
jects.
In what direction, then. will the Ger
man emperor and the German people,
for the emperor's announcements are
only the measure of his subjects amb-
ton, seek this territorial aggrandize-
trymen must have, when his navy in
1907 reaches the maximum of pro-
jected strength? At whose expense?
1t is impossible to indicate. The
German emperor is not the man
to wait upon events if he can
bend them to his designs. The Russian
empire from west to east, is an intre-
grated whole. The colonial empire of
France, as an intrinsic acquisition, is
hardly worth the bones of a Pommer-
ian grenadier. If the Germanic alb
sorbtion of Holland is ever effected.
the reversion of her colonies would
follow, as matter of course. A terri
torial reimbursement of the map of con-
tinental Europe would be delimitated
on the theater of a bloody, devastat-
ing and probably an utterly indecisive
war. But this is elimination alb
horrent to the emporers policy and
plans. The destiny of the Fatherand,
the emperor believes. is upon the sea.
To this end his craftsmanship, his
energy and his ambition are directed.
Nothing definite has leaked out as to
the purport of the interview between
the kaiser and the car at their recent
meeting at Revel. The emperor of
Russia is signally taciturn, both from
disposition and policy. The oratorical
eHusiveness of William II is in strange
contrast to the sphinN-like reticence of
Nicholas II. The cZar is wooed by
every crowned head and government
In Europe, while the emperor is the
most incorrgible political hirt that the
world has ever seen. When the kaiser
was steamng out of Revel this
strange signal was made from the
Hohenzollern to the STANDARD: "rhe
ruler OF the Atlantic sends his greet
ings to the ruler of the Pacific; to
which the c2ar sent the chilling re-
sponse: "A pleasant voyage" 1t is
evident that the kaiser, in his enthus-
iasm, forgot all about us and that
strange device of ours, 1.-The Monroe
doctrine" when dethroning poor Nep-
tune in the Atlantic and the Pacific.
AT the same time cavilierly enough, he
ignored Great Britain's not inconsider-
able oceanic interests, west and east.
Does not this incident give a hint of
his purposes?