Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-28
WIZ TT rs ANr1-RUssIAN.
The American Sympathy for ia
pan

pan.
The New York Evening Post publishes an
interesting article translated from the
Paris La Revue on the Japanese situation,
from which the following is taken:
American sentiment is anti-Russian. It
has, indeed. never been anything but
vaguely traditional the good understanding
being more diplomatic than popular, Russia
is not attractive. It is too new Nature
has not been humanized and transformed
as 1t has been In France, Italy and Japan.
Except Tolstoy and few musical frag-
ments, Russian literature and art are al
most unknown in the United States. The
brutal realism of Russian writers Is dis
pleasing. The uncleanliness, the super
stition of the Russian peasant, and his ikon
worship, are repulsive. He Is poor man
scarcely out of bondage, ignorant of the
benefits of the public school. q citizen
riveted for life to base condition The
American has no use for a country that
does not give the poor man chance to
become a millionaire. Russian immigrants
in appearance and behavior do not reconcile
him to the nation that breeds them. II an
American man Of affairs goes to Russia. he
at once gets into difficulty. The meddling
Of the adminiStra ton, official corruption.
annoying conditions imposed. duplicity. and
the habit of the administration to refuse
compensation for the machinery after 1t
has made itself acquainted with the proc
esses. do not make the government popular.
The Americans dislike the civil and eccles-
iastical persecution Of the liberals, the
tyrannical treatment Of Finland, the Jewish
prosecutions.
Americans are intensely interested in the
maintenance of the open door, When
Russia refused to keep its promise to eevac-
uate Manchuria and thus insure the open
door,, they were angry. They do not like
the subtle and secret diplomacy of Russia,
anyway.
American Suspicious of Russia.
by means of the Panama canal the Pa
cific, not the Atlantic and the Mediter-
ranean. will in the near future become the
waters of the civilized world. An enormous
commerce with the orient is the dream of
the great west in the United States The
approach of Russia toward that ocean has
aroused the American. At first the opti-
mists rejoiced. Civilized and railroaded Man.
churia would be open to them. But they
soon learned that official Russia. with its
railroad, official influence. and Russo-Chi-
nese bank meant nothing of the kind BY
subsidized steamers, bank credit to Chi
nese merchants buying Russian goods only.
and a protective tariff, Russia intended
making another complete monopoly of its
commerce as 1t had Of Persias. Wheat
from Siberia would find It's market there to
the exclusion of American wheat, for it
could be sold for one-third less. At Hardin
in two years eight flour mills maintained
an output of $500 barrels OF Hour day
In the neighboring Pacific provinces dozen
mills were turning out 100000 barrels a
year. The American lumber trade is threat
ened in the same way.
Americans do not believe the Japanese
will ever be such rivals. They expect them
to maintain the open door
They will probably be content to see
both Japanese and Russians exhaust them
selves In a prolonged struggle. With the
Russians defeated even temporarily, there
will be time to dig the Panama canal, es-
tablish American commerce in Asia, trans
portation on the Pacific, railroads and tele-
graphs In China, and to wake up that coun-
try to defend itself against Russian agrees
sion Among its 4O0,000O00 people they ex-
pect to find the most magnificent market
on the globe, when Puget sound shall float
the fleets Of all the world, which shall pro-
mote the business welfare of five transcon-
tinental railways, and of the people who
own them"