Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-04-18
A New Pacific Outlook.
From the New York journal, Of Commerce.

To appreciate the magnitude OF tn.
.hansc that the international situation has
undergone in the great Pacific area. 1T is
necessary to recall the expectations which
he great powers of Europe had formed of
heir future in eastern Asia and the
Islands of Occania. AS long ago az 1889
ilic merchants of Mini Novgorod predicted
in an address to the Emperor Alexander
Ill. the brilliant future which the Trans
Siberian railway was about to open for
Russia. 1t was to unite to Europe through
the Russian empire 400. 100000 of Chinese
and fs.Oo0.OO0 of Japanese. In the COM
merce of the world the Trans-Siberian
vas destined to work as important a rev.
oiution in the of the world az
SID the discovery OF the Cape OF Good
Hope in the 18th century. or the construc-
ton OF the Suez canal in the 18th. 1t was
declared that the future policy Of Russia
would be to secure the full attainment Of
what she had been striving after for CEN
turtles in her onward march through the
Siberian wilds-that is. access to seas free
from ice. Russia was attaining this free
dom OF the sea 400 years later than Spain.
Portugal. France. England and Holland,
0ut she had lost nothing in having waited
SO long. There was nobody to contradict
the statement in those days that Russia
had passed through the Baltic and Medi-
terranean periods, with a power Of expan-
" AlOW ~ uGT pTeueCcSSSuS. dLlu
that she was about to ~inaugurate a new
era In her h~istory-the Oceanic. the world
vide era. The best evidence that these
congratulations were regarded az we'll
founded is supplied by the alarm with
which they were regarded by the pub
licists and statesmen of other nations.
Writing In 1897, a clear sighted American
observer. John r.. Proctor. discerned IN
The expansion OF Russia Il serious menace
10 the Anglo-Saxon world. He pointed out
hat while more than GOO years ago tie
great MongolN e.apire threatened to absorb
western Europe. the then expanding en-
pire of the Slav was threatening to absorb
he descendants Of the Mongols. and to
establish an empire more powerful than
that of Genghis Kahn. Hencv. he argued
that q decision mist soon b.. made to de-
.ernline whether the principles of consti-
tutional liberty and self government, rep
resented by the civilization of the English
speaking nations. o. the repro ssive abso-
futism Of the Slav' shall dominate the
world.
1t was in the year following the publ
ration Of Mr.. Proc: or's t~ractlte that Rus.
STA occupied Port Arthur and Talienwan.
With a virtual supremacy over al, the
Tast region north of the great wall OF
china that Germany seized Kiao-chau
and the adjoining territory; Great Brit
ain occupied Wei-hai-wei; France OH
..ained kwang-chow bay opposite the
Islands Of Hainan: the United States an
nexed Hawaii and acquired the Philip
pine islands: while Italy put in a CLAIM,
COR part of,the province of Che-kiang, and
Japan for Q protectorate over Fukien. op-
posite her recently acquired island of For
nosa. The competition for points OF van
Rge on the Pacific was thus already under
way before the last century came to a
close. n 1t looked as II the great strug.
gle OF the 10Th century were e turn upon
he international rivalries that were fast
eeing developed In eastern Asia. A be-
tween the afeat industrisl nations Of tn.
rest these seemsd to be exclusively econ-