River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-03-30
GREATNESS OF A NATION.
Rests Very Largely Upon Its Com
mercial Importance - Factor
in Treaty Making.

At the present moment the nations
seem to be chiefly occupied in swearing
out peace warrants against each other.
Never before were the great powers SO
treaty-bound. says Vance Thompson. in
Success Magazine. The result is curl
Gus. Without war or menace of war
the diploma tic center of gravity has
been shifted in Europe. There is a re-
adjustment of diplomatic frontiers.
OF all these alliances the most impor-
tant is that of France and England.
1t has been long in the brewing, this
treaty. Periodically enough, it was
signed while the allies of the two DOW
ers-on the one hand the car. on the
other the mikado-were at war; the fact
is without precedent in the annals os
treaty-making.
In a way it is victory, largely per-
Sonal, for King Edward VII. For 20
years England has bent every effort to
gain the good will of Germany: indeed.
she has been her moral ally; but Ger
many's commercial rivalry and growing.
sea power have snapped the old bonds of
kinship and friendship. The change of
front was not quite so sudden as it
seemed. After the Boer war blood was
no longer thicker than water; Hans was
no longer cousin of the house; the true
friend was the cousin of Normandy-fo
he, too, is of the blood-and the wooden
shOd, red-capped democracy across the
English channel All of this is true
enough; France is no longer redoubt-
able rival for England; other states.
| equaling her in vitality and SURPRISING
| her in population, are the real rivals of
English power-Germany and the Unit
| ed States. At every point these nations
menace Englands future-her indus
trial and commercial future, and her
colonial and maritime future. The old
| historic reasons which made France the
enemy to be feared no longer exist. The
wooing of France went on for two years.
| 1t began, as all modern crusades DO, in
| the press. Edward VII. had always been
Partisan favorite. and the newspapers
broke out in rush of compliments. eulo-
gies and anecdotes.
Behind every one of these latter-day
| treatieS-the Italian as the Spanish, that
with Japan as that against Germany
one may see England's great and pathet-
/ ic struggle to maintain the world-su-
premacy that is slipping away from her.
Not since her diplomacy organized Eu-
rope against Napoleon has she put forth
efforts SO strenuous. One great victory
she may record: the so-Japanesewar
has given her an opportunity to "occu-
py' Thibet; for "75 years" she is to hold
the great valley of the Chumbi, which is
the key of the land The ink on the
French treaty was hardly dry-Germany
had hardly realized her isolation,-be-
fore English arms and ammunition were
sent across the frontier and the native
| tribes of Damaraland and Namaqualand
rose in revolt against German authority.
1t is all part of that fierce struggle for
commercial, industrial, maritime life in
which the United Kingdom is battling
with such blind, fierce energy. Joseph
Chamberlain sees-as at Washington
they see-that the mother of nations is
! fighting against destiny.
| Nothing counts but trade There is no
national greatness which is not based on
commerce.