Movements of the Older Nations: Chinese and Latin

Russia is a coming force with which the Great Republic must reckon. The footing we have won on the Philippine step of the door which may or may not remain open, brings us in touch with the great empire in the East. Again we greet a future competitor for the laurels of commercial victory. With Russia, Germany, and England, the United States competes for the favor of the domestic potentate who shall finally hold the key of China's tantalizing door. Friendly division of benefits is not unknown in the commercial operations of nations. With tact underlying the quality of perseverance miracles are always possible, and the millennium may be reached by the path of trade.

The republic of France holds its own unique and probably permanent stall in the world's market-place. It lacks the genius of colonization, tending, oppositely, to neglect in maintaining its standard of home population. Much awaits the serious consideration of its people; its sources of weakness are fickleness in self-government, and over-confidence in a prestige which has not strengthened with the years. The bonds of sincere friendship, long continued, between the American and French republics bid fair to be consolidated into a firmer attachment as the years pass.

A prominent statesman of Europe recently spoke of certain "dying nations," in contrast to those so actively engaged in colonizing and trading. The expression was ill-chosen, as applied to peoples less numerous but not necessarily less virile in their own surroundings. Spain has a noble history, broadly viewed, and a nation that has had a proud past may achieve a fine future. Italy and Rome have not lost their grandeur, nor all that makes power. Ancient China can smile at some modern claims, pointing backwards to a civilization not yet dead, and perhaps forwards to a self-assertiveness that may set the moderns staring.

It may be that the world and its inhabitants are to be reduced to subjection under three lords only, the Slav, the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon. This, or some such fancy, seems to inspire the feverish efforts of the first and the third of these races to sweep vast areas into already unwieldy empires. The assumption that the Latin peoples will somehow lose or change their characteristic qualities and develop those of their remote ancestors, fails to take adequate cognizance of physical, geographical and extraneous conditions which are not to be ignored. The opening up of Africa will mightily affect the destiny of nations and races. It may create new ones. Some of the profoundest students of history, having personal knowledge of the Eastern world, years ago committed themselves to the prediction that the cry "China for the Chinese" will yet amaze the waiters for the "open door." They foresee the possibility of a sweeping crusade of Chinese fanaticism against the bordering peoples, with the coming of a universal war between the yellow and white races. India eagerly looks forward to self-liberation from British rule. In this other nations besides the Russians, Persians and Afghans are interested. The game is playable with milder weapons than the sword. American piety has pioneered the way by moral suasion and practical exemplification of civilized life. American commerce has spread a full share of ameliorating conditions before the peoples once described as heathens and barbarians. In the winning of the Oriental races, rather than their coercion, lies the sounder policy of the future. In happy accord with the traditions of the Republic, the United States has refrained from joining the aggressive action proposed by certain other powers in the Chinese trouble. When peaceful efforts fail and force becomes necessary, the American arm strikes swiftly and with effect. May it not be necessary. Hopeless as affairs may seem in any crisis, time may be trusted to ease the situation, sufficiently at least for compromise, often the wisest solution. History is writing itself startlingly almost day by day, as we have seen in these pages. It will continue to chronicle the rise, decline, and disappearance of monarchs and dynasties, but the Great Republic is destined to see its grandest century in the one she now is entering.