Alaska sentinel., 1905-08-17

thing of the first importance. The light in the Korean straits, like the bat tie of Saiamis, the battle of Actfunl, the destruction of the Spanish armada. the British triumph at Trafalgar, was not only decisive in its immediate re- suits but 1t will also exert powerful influence upon the entire future his
 tory of mankind. When Xerxes in- yaded Europe Greece was just begin
 ming to bring forth that wonderful civ ilization whose study has for centn- ries been a pleasure and stimulus Of the intellectual leaders of the west
 The Greeks won at Salamis, and Nerves was hurled back into Asia. Suppose they had lost and the Asiatics had overrun Greece. There would have been no age of Pericles,' no his tories by Xenophon and Herodotus, no dramas by Aeschylus and Sophocles, no philosophies of Aristotle and Plato. There would have been no statues by Phidias, no orations of Demosthenes. There can be little question that In that case the moral, intellectual, and material aspect of the western world would now be extremely different from what is actually is. Issues hardly less important were settled at Actium. The east, under Antony, there met the west under Octayius. The victory of the latter determined that the capital of the world should not be removed to
 1A Irfo hut ch a Rome, and made possible the founda- ton by Octayius Augustus, of the Ro- man empire, the extension of whose sovereignty and laws over Europe has profoundly affected all subsequent his tory. There would have been no Au- gustan age if Actium had turned out differently. The victory of the En- glish over the Spanish armaGa deter mined that Europe should not be who'll ly Catholic, but both Protestant and Catholic. It prevented that arrest of the development of English laws and liberty which would have been a con sequence of Spanish conquest. It an initiated Spanish power upon the seas and gave to the extensive and mighty empire of Philip II. blow from which 1t never recovered. Napoleon's favor ite project for years was an invasion of England, and he had his plans for 1t matured. Nelson's victory at Trafal
 gar made England mistress of the seas and confined the operations of the French emperor to the land. Who knows but that, if yilleneuye had won at Trafalgar Napoleon would have achieved his ambition of reigning over all Europe? If Togo had been beaten by Rojestvensky Russia would now be master of the eastern seas. Marshal Oyama's great army would be irretrievably cut off, the Russian fleet would be harassing the Japanese coast at will, and the issue of the war would be doubtful. The Japanese victory settles both the result of the war and the future of the east. The east Is to be Mongol, not Slav; yellow, not white. It is to be free, not bond. It Is to work out it's salvation under the sym pathetic leadership of the intelligent and progressive Japanese, not under the dictation of the despotic and re- acdonary Russian bureaucracy. The Japanese victory will have important effects in Russia as well as in the east. It cannot fail to hasten the downfall of the bureaucracy and the rise of free institutions. Each of these great de- cisiye battles was won by the fleet which was the weaker in ships. Each was won by men, not machines. In the opinion of most of the world the result of the last will prove, as the re suits of all the others have proved, for the best interests of ciyilizatio