BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-01-11

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SAN JUAN, JANUARY y
International Glass Houses,
In defiance Of the proverb, there has been
good dea! of international stonethrowing
ring the past few months. "British bar
baritiss, indeed! shifted the indignant but
rash Chamberlain; .'what about the assoc;a
tions Of the rames Cossack and UhlanYr
Instantly the air was filed with the missiles
which the angry Germans Alma at English
greenhouses The fusilaGe was going on
most vIrtuosly and satisfactorily, when sud.
denly there was crash Of glass in the rear
1t Was the Poles crying out that they had
grievances against Germany as bitter az
those Of the Beers against England. Stor-
les Of tortured Polish children in Prussian
sch ,ols began to be heard, and Sienkiewicl
seized his pen in behalf of his race, to sorite
blrning words about ' 'Prussisn myrmidons,
and q "dsgenerate civilization leading to
barbarism," s0ith an "imperial policy de-
praving society" The immediate and some
what comic result was to give Mr.. Cham
berlain surcease of German revilings, in
much the same fashion that American in.
digoation about Weyler gracefully sabsided
when United States officers began to give
his hated policy of s'concentration" the since.
re lattery of imitation.
1t would be butt . smirking philosophy
which saw in all this nothing but an anus.
Ing instance of the international " You're
another Whether we reckon ourselves
among the embarrassed countries which are
condemned out Of their own mouths, or
consider our withers unwrung, we ought not
to be blind to the deeper implications Of the
fact referred to. Have the nations all at
cnce begun TO be inordinately Pharisaics
Are they simply displaying violent and
lnoautlous passion, each to- be its brothers
keepeis Such an explanation would not
reach: the heart of the matter. What we
are seing fs q great extension Of the einterna.
tlonal consciousness, as.it may be called.
No nation liveth to itself any longer. There
u . "cenaus conmunip of civilszation, before
which, as before severe but just tribunal,
every country is subject to be summoned to
be judged BY its peers for deeds achich can
no more, in any part Of the earth, be done
In corner.
Thus it is really the creation of an inter.
national conscience which we are witnes
sing, even in the extravsgances and incon-
sistencies Of recrimination betsceen country
and country. II there were not q recognis.
ed standard OF morality and humanity for
nations, no one would exclaim at its viola.
tfons. And the very sensitiveness and re
sentiment Of the Ohamberlains and the Won
Bulows, when the national action for which
they are responsible is sharply srraigned BY
foreigners, are themselves part and proof Of
the fact that there 10 new moral order in
international relations. The corquering
Romans cared mot that they were called
worid-robbers "(rsptores orbisJn What
answer but shrng did Napoleon need to
give to foreign sxecrationi II is something
% have changed that old cynical indifference,
even Tor the Hypocrisy which ID 90 often, in
tne modern Statesman caught red-handed,
the aomage that vice pays to virtue. Like
the Q1aen IN "Hamles,n he 10 forced, II he
would hold up his head in the facs Of the
sentiment Of the world Of today, to assume
virtue u he havs is not.
IL u this evidence OF Q quickened inter.
national consciencs that we iInd the most
significant thing In the censorship Of one
country over the morals sf another. Nov
eonscIence y . most exigsnt tenant, whether
10 lodging be IN the indiyidal or the national
breast Il issisls, q Il we're, urea ssII lhs