The Arizona copper camp., 1915-10-22
INDEPENDENCE AN ILLUSION

lNOEPENQENCE AN ILLUSION
Before the rise of the German navy
England rejoiced in what she proud
ly called her splendid isol ton" For
generations, indeed, for centuries, she
had taken part in or withheld herself
from the wars of the continent as she
deemed the more profitable to her,
says the Chicago Tribune. In her
moated citadel she sat secure or
sailed forth to turn the scale of bat
tie and mold the fate of Europe It
was-and is-an Incompatible foreign
statecraft which built the British en-
pire, but. farseeing and masterful
though it was, it. could not raise her
above the tide whose tempestuous
surface is the war of today. but whose
deep current carries all the world
onward. Even England could not
isolate herself, and what American
realize is that the United States will
not be able to do what the foresight
of British policy has failed to do.
Washington, one of the wisest
statesmen, not only of our own but of
any other nation, warned his contem-
poraries against entangling alliances.
On that warning one of the chief
tenets of what policy we may be said
to possess is founded. For century
it has saved us from improvident and
dangerous diplomacy, but it is by no
means free from the common lot of
all temporal things Washington
spoke to his contemporaries out of a
sane sense of our advantages and our
weaknesses then existing. He was too
sensible to claim for his advice per-
petual validity, and it is for America
of our time to look about her upon
the world as it now is and determine
what course she will or must follow.
Isolation, we ought to know, and
will know if we look at facts, does
not exist in this world of the twen-
tieth century. Isolation is impossible
for a nation so huge, so highly or
ganized, so energetic and self -confi-
dent as the merican. Commerce, in
ternational credit, immigration. al
ready bind US by innumerable bonds
to other peoples. We are inextricably
a part of the world complex, and
nothing could be more dangerous for
us than to cherish the delusion that
we are isolate or free to isolate our
selves.
At the present moment we know
that none of the belligerent peoples
is friendly to US. On the contrary.
there is the most embittered hostil-
ity to us, and after the war is over
this dislike will be kept alive by envy
for our comparative prosperity. 1t is
true that our relations will not be
determined finally by this sentiment,
but unquestionably whatever aggres-
sive policy a government or alliance
may deem it safe and profitable to
adopt toward us will find useful sup
port because of its peoples feeling.
The close Of the war, whatever the
outcome, will find the nations not in
a beatific state Of pacifism. nor yet
in a state of exhaustion. On the con-
trary, there will exist a desperate
rivalry. in which new groupings of
political and economic forces are like
ly to be made, and the world will
continue for some time in state of
unstable equilibrium. There may be
new aggressive units or groups of
units, tariff wars, renewed colonial
strategies, a world of grim effort
reaching the farthest seas and shores.
From this the United States cannot
remain aloof. On the contrary, we
are already committed fully to a prin-
cipal part in it. We shall therefore
need as never before farsighted,
well considered, and determined for
eign policy, which will not be duped
by forms or paralyzed by traditions.
We may need to make hard and fast
and comprehensive alliances. We
most certainly can no longer afford
to drift or muddle through as we have
DONE
The danger of our present condi-
ton is that our foreign relations have
grown without our realizing it. We
are committed to relations the conse-
ouences of which we have not fore
seen. and we need now most urgently
to try to discern the implications OF