The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-16
OUR DEBT TO RUSSIA.

The question really raised by the
comments of Admiral Terry in this pa
Iper yesterday is whether our de0t 10
Russia should be considered before our
duty to civilization. That debt, as the
friends of Russia describe it, was in
Toured during the Civil War when the
diplomacy of the Car was used to de-
feat the plans Of England and France
to recognize the independence of the
Southern Confederacy. 1t is remem-
bered that at a critical period of the
Civil War, Russian squadrons spent
some months in the harbors of New
York and San Francisco, thus assur-
ing the United States of physical as
we'll as moral support in certain for
eign emergencies. Admiral Terry hints
that the general American sympathy
for Japan in this war shows too short
"a memory for the past kindnesses of
Russia.
| 1t should not be forgotten, however,
that the services of Russia were prac-
tically rewarded soon after the Civil
| War by the payment to her of six or
seven millions of dollars in gold for a
Territory (Alaska) which was then be-
Iieved to be worthless. Mr.. Seward,
by that purchase, earned a great deal
of abuse from those who did not know
the why and wherefore and who shared
the prevalent misconception Of the re-
sources of the Russian-American arctic. |
The ST. Petersburg government felt !
good over the sale and might have call |
ed its account with the United States
square.
There are those who will say, how
ever, that six or seven millions of dol
lars were poor pay for so inestimable a
service as Russia rendered US. But let
US remember that Russia was not play
ing our game but her own. The United
States in those years was generally hos
tile to England and it was best for Rus
STA not to let us be crushed or even
become weakened and impoverished
While the American republic potential
ly threatened Canada, Great Britain
could not spend all her time in watch
ing Russia. The Car did not care for
US as patriots and republicans; indeed
he despised our constitution and our I
the same and it was best for him to
keep in with us. Hence the impress ,
'ive and grotesque spectacle of Alex 6
inder the despot and Lincoln the rail- {
,DIittar cha Linp hands aoroec tba fooY,,
Even were it true that we paid too :
ow a price for Russian support forty I
ears ago, is it not also true that we 7
hould pay too high a price if we were a
o aid her, even by moral sustenance, +
n the conquest and subjugation of +
asia? Wherever Russia plants herself il
here are despotism, tyranny, religious G
a vast standing army, I'M Z
1st courts, feeble schools, an oppressed -
eople and an inhuman prison system.
an the United States, even out of
ratitude, stand for such things in the b
Torld? If Russia defeats Japan she L
ill spread over China and perhaps all a
STA the pail of her disagreement; if :,
dpdh oeIeaIS Russia, She Will open n
hina to the light of modern progress. u
1stead of China becoming another fl
iberia she may become another Japan. II
1t is true, as Admiral Terry points -
~ 'ns'' we nave no can 10 lilterIere' h
ut our sympathies may we'll place III
in their natural relations to m
lose who stand in the Old World for Ell
rinciples which we cherish in the New -