The Irish standard., 1903-05-16

and to seek to pcrpctuatc such an over
grown Imperialism in these days is to
: challenge chriStcndom and to invite as.
tumble the moment that England is in
volved in a serious quarrel With any
rival. She can have her empire only
so long as she contents herself with
mere bravado. rcfrainS from violence,
and manages to prevent Il rupture With
any great power.
Face to face with this situation,
realizing that the continuance of her
empire depends on fair weather and Il
smooth sea. and seeing the door shut
in her face on the Continent. England
finds herself driven to seek counten-
ance and support from us. With no
friend or ally on the earth, she turns
to us With her Anylo-Saxonism. which.
pressed to its legitimate conclusion,
would only rcleCite us to the status
of the largest British colony For her.
we are Anglo-SaNonS, only because
| tlltFeD! size Wolllu IiOlSlcf up npr en-
pirc. Powerful us she is ut home, she
needs everything from us. while we
need nothing from her. We have moth
ing to bolster up. So it has come to
pass that England first breaches TO us
the doctrine of oneness of race-whcl
she calls being Anglo-SHNons-;,nd then
II fI,.,t Il;
the Continent rs she is. Everywhere i'm
the world. England and EngliShmen
are cordially diSlikrd. For Il century
their procedure has been such as to
offend and atfrOnt the nations. with
the result that they are entering upon
the new century handicapped both
with their top-hcavy and cumbersome
empire and with the dislike and active
luminosity of the whole world. 1t is.
therefore. necessary to imbuc us with
the notion that we too are disliked
abroad; and that this luminosity is
ground for our standing together, be-
cause all the world is against the
Anglo Saxon.
TO tell America that she is disliked
in Europe as England is diSlllcd is
to say the thing that is not. The Eng
fish press must be credited With prac-
ticnlly the whole of this persistent mis-
statement Inspired from Downing
street. it has harprd time out of mind,
OH this string. While the American
press dcbauchrs. and the French press
intlamrS, the London press dccrivrs
Nowhere else within the four corners
of the earth is such transparent non-
sense consistently ana pcrsistently put
out with Il straight face for truth, as
in the columns Of the daily English
newspapers. Nowhere else is found Il
reading public so dociIc and gullible--
!; people who read every morning, and
believe every hour, what they find out
next day to be untrue. But the print
ing and the believing, the fabrication
and the faith go OH, us we all know,
die in diem, world without end
While there is thus every reason why
Europe should be hostile to Great Bri-
tain, because she is in evcrybody's
way, there is no reason why that hos
tility should extend to u.s. We are not
crowding ourselves into any part of
the eastern hemisphere, and we are
not Haunting an empire in the face of
chrstcndom, nor trcnding upon any
European coriis. Aside from Germany,
which may safely be regarded in this
connection a negligible quantity, there
is no European state where there can
be found to-day any especial or eN-
ccptiollAl dislike for America and the
Americans. Nowhere in Europe is
there any disposition to class us with
the English, except so far as we put
the English themselves are seeking to
bring it about by their chatter about
the Anglo Saxon race. If the American
behaves himself and goes honestly
about his business, buying, selling and
getting gain as he finds opportunity for
trade, he will fare as well in Europe
as anybody else, the inevitable friction
of trade competition affecting him no
more than the rest. He is now on Il
perfectly even keel in Europe, except as
Europe may suspect that he is playing
into the hands Of Great Britain. Elim-
mate that idea. and the United
States may go on well. and will get
on well, all over the world. OF course,
if we join hands in world-plundcr
with England, and shout ourselves
honrsc and out of breath over Anglo
Saxon domination. or if we allow our
selves to become Il sort OF tail to the
imperial kite that England is flying,
we shall come in for share OF con-
tincmal ill-will. We behaved, for en-
ample, badly enough in the Drcyfus
affair, stupidity following the English
lead; SO ineXcusably, indeed, that, If
the tables had been turned, we should
have set no bounds to our wrath at q
similar otlicious interference by a
European people in domestic con
rather deccntly over that and has
pretty we'll forgotten it; so that, if We
manage to exercise better taste and
better Judgment and more self-control
another time, it cannot count for much
against us. But we cannot go on III