Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-03
SU NDAY
SEPTEMBER 3
PRES. ROOSEVELT'S
WORK FOR PEACE A
GREAT ACHIEVEMENT
THE success of President Roosevelt

deserves universal and profound appre-
was personal achievement. There
was no obligation on him to undertake
such task-certainly no greater obli-
cation than rested on the head of any
other state. All the world regarded the
chance of success as remote. There
was even ridicule Of his effort. He was
told by a part Of the American press
the part that for some strange reason
lives in mortal fear of a presidents
doing anything lest he entangle us in
quarrels with other governments-he
was told that war on the other side I
of the world was no affair of ours and
that our duty was to keep clear of
"entangling" relations.
But with characteristic energy and
tact and patience he began and con-
tinued the delicate negotiations that
resulted at last in his introduction of
the peace plenipotentiaries to one an |
other on board the Mayf1ower on Aug
ust 6.
1t was an impressive scene when the
representatives of the emperor of jap \
an and the representatives Of the en-
peror of Russia shook hands, brought v
together by the presidents good offices
When a little later at luncheon the '
president said:
Gentlemen: I propose a toast to which
there will be no answer and to which !
ask you to drink in silence standing. l
drink to the welfare and prosperity of the
soverefgns and peoples of the two great
nations whose representatives have met \
est hope and praVer IN the IL nteresf is of o
only those two great powers, but of all y
mankind, that just and lasting peace
may speedily be concluded between
all the world was drawn closer together
by the wish for peace. The presidential !
office and the prestige of the republic
were never used for a more humane
purpose; and the personal success of !
Mr.. Roosevelt in thus using them gives
every right thinking man a thrill of
pride in him as our chief magistrate.
Russia is now, In Joseph Conrads
striking phrase, only "yawning chasm
open between east and west" and what
her future will be is the most interest
ing speculation in contemporary poll
tics. The fear abroad which the czars
once inspired is gone, because their
war power has vanished. If the czar-
any czar-should build 500 battleships
and arm 100000 men no first rate
power would fear his navy or his army.
The inef1ciency of both has been made
evident-not the ineff1ciency of Kuro-
patkin and Rojestvensky only, but of
all their successors under an autocratic
government.
For the pitiful failure of Russian
arms on land and sea was not the
mere failure of generals and admirals.
1t was the failure of czardom itself, the
failure of the rule of an autocracy that
has, generations done everything to
sui SIS and nothing to develop the l
Rus n people.
Th peoples of the czar's empire Gor y
they are of many races) have simply
existed and multiplied. Russia has y
played a part in the world since the !
forcible making of the empire only be- '
cause of the fear of the war strength
of the car and of the autocracy. They '
seemed powerful because of the fear
felt by other nations, as they have '
grown rich on the fear of their own
people.
Since that fear is now gone, what is
ielt? A kind of social and political
chaos. There will still be czars, but
they will rule under different condi-
tiens; or, if they rule in the old way, /
they can not again frighten the
world or play the part of powerful
soNereigns. Or the government may
at lSst become. by continual turbulence =
and local rebellions, rather than by
sudden revolution, too weak to hold y
the people in subsection. 1t is even ]
conceivable that parts of the empire Y
may in time become independent
What will happen nobody knows; '
for only this is certain-the thing that
was Russia in the minds of govern '
ments and of men no longer exists.
Japan pricked the most colossal bub-
BILE of modern times. But in spite of I
this condition, Russia has not by any
means been exhausted by the Japanese I
victories in Asia. She could prolong
the war for an indefinite period /
Japan, too, is, of course, in both a
financial and military condition to !
go on winning. The Japanese have not
suffered a single defeat since the war /
began. Their navy is stronger than it
ever was, for it has captured more war y
ships than it has lost and they are !
building new ones. One of these is now v
on its way home from the dockyards of !
the British builders. Japanese army Y
could easily be maintained in Man
churia to meet and keep back any force '
that the Russians could send over the
,trans-Siberan railroad. The Japanese =
losses of men have been severe.