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able for any power, or group of powers, to antagonize it. Undoubtedly, the new alliance keeps the peace in the Far East and is a check to Russian and German aggression, for Germany has been trying to do in Shangtung what Russia has done in Manchuria. And the new alliance is for the advantage of the United States. The commercial equality for which the United States has contended is secured. Without becoming involved in the political concerns of Europe, the United States is guaranteed free access to the markets of China, Manchuria, and Corea. This is something for which the United States ought to feel thankful; something for which it may thank Great Britain and Japan; something for which no thanks are due to Russia. A. MAURICE Low.

PRINCE HENRY'S VISIT.

BUT few ceremonious visits have passed between the European nations and the United States. Of all the Presidents of the Republic only one has, after the completion of his term, travelled abroad and enjoyed the public hospitality of Europe. Grant's tour was transformed, by the marked attention and enthusiasm with which he was received, into a triumphant progress around the world. And now the visit of the veteran general of the Civil War has been returned by the young admiral of royal blood, whose name, like that of Emperor William, will be linked with the founding of Germany's naval strength.

The visit of the Prince is a compliment both to the industrial and to the political importance of the United States. Not only did the Emperor select an American shipyard to build his yacht, but he sent his only brother to participate in the baptism. Things like this indicate a changed attitude toward the United States on the part of Continental Europe. Even a decade ago the most grotesque assumptions were current among the educated people of the Continent concerning American life and affairs. Their ideas about America could be comprised in the following conceptions; that American democracy consisted chiefly in the necessity of travelling in one class and of shining one's own boots; and that politically and socially the American people were a loose knit, heterogeneous body, full of swagger and restless energy, with no clear purpose except that of money-making. Individually the Americans were looked upon as half-educated but good-natured persons who travelled much, supported artists whose work they did not understand, and gave unreasonable fees to servants. With the real current of American political affairs the average educated man in Europe was as little familiar as we are with the contemporary history of Chili or Peru. It lay entirely outside of his ordinary course of thought, and never entered into his political forecasts.

But a complete readjustment of political views has been brought about through the various great events in the East and in the West during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The broadening of the poli

tical horizon of Europe has led Europeans to realize that the central position of the United States between the two great oceans, the vast extent of its resources, and the energy of its population have made it a primary factor in all great international questions.

To these is added the fact that the products of American industry are now brought into all the markets of Europe where they compete most successfully with the local manufactures. Thus American industrial policy and progress have become a domestic question in all the European countries; while American diplomacy, sometimes blunt, always direct, usually reasonable, is a prime factor in all the calculations of European cabinets. Small wonder that the educated of all Europe have become anxious to know more about the giant of the West, the most recent member of the world concert. They no longer look upon American life as a side eddy to the great current of events, or upon America as a place of exile where one casts off relations with the real human world. The leading figures of American public life have become well known, in fact almost household names, among the educated of Europe; and as these public personalities become more prominent in their eyes, so the desire of establishing personal relations with them increases. Out of the hitherto indiscriminate mass of the American democracy a more clearly defined national character has arisen to the view of Europe, a character typified in many of our prominent men. In this manner the ideas of Europe concerning America, hitherto general and indefinite, are now beginning to attach themselves to definite personalities and are thus rendered concrete.

Of all this the visit of Prince Henry is an indication; and it speaks highly for the political insight of the Emperor that he leads his nation in this recognition of the place which the United States has now come to occupy in the life and the councils of the world. In sending Prince Henry as his ambassador, he has selected a true representative both of his house and of his nation. Fainéant princes are not gladly suffered among the Hohenzollern. The strict domestic discipline which made the youth of Frederick the Great unhappy has been, when wielded by less harsh hands than those of Frederick William I, the making of many a prince who thus was steadfastly held to a life of useful activity and wholesome development. Prince Henry was educated as a seaman; and, somewhat like Peter the Great, he anticipated the naval development of his nation. In this respect he is representative of modern Germany, in the life of which industry and communication are primary factors. These two are combined in the navy, as a powerful man-of-war is not only a

machine of the greatest complexity and most delicate balance, but also acts as the protector of trade along all the routes that lie across the sea.

Prince Henry coming to us as a seaman, with all the grace and dignity of bearing that characterize the highest in this profession, was much surer of a hearty welome than any military magnate would have been. It is not necessary here to emphasize the favorable impression which his frankness and tact, his patient submission to the endless details of municipal hospitality, and his personal affability made upon all the people who came in contact with him. What impression he has carried away with him we shall perhaps never know; yet the spontaneous welcome accorded him must at least have predisposed him to see things in a favorable light; and, being a man of technical education, he could appreciate our civilization where it is strongest.

As to any specific political purpose of this visit or concrete political results thereof, neither one nor the other can be made the subject of definite statements. The economic interests of the two nations will continue to jar at times. The German agrarians will not abate a jot in their hostility to American produce, nor will the United States be more liberal than is necessary toward German manufactured articles. Yet, though these economic questions must be solved upon their own basis, it would be an error to think that such events as the Prince's visit are entirely devoid of political consequences. We have to deal here rather with what has been called the imponderabilities of politics than with concrete and definite facts. International amenities and friendships may seem as unsubstantial as "the bubble reputation;" and still, as Beaconsfield has said, the true statesman must always count with sentiment and imagination. Now, as a matter of fact, in the sentiment among nations at the present time antipathies seem far stronger than sympathies. When we take up a French paper we meet on almost every page denunciations of the cruelty and greed of Great Britain. The British papers write of the Germans as if they were a nation of swindlers, lacking in the very rudiments of commercial honesty; and the latter are prompt to reciprocate by comparing Kitchener's tactics to those of Weyler of evil fame, and repeating the refrain of "selfish, grasping England." Were these papers sent to Mars, the inhabitants of that planet would be justified in assuming that murderous warfare between these nations was absolutely inevitable.

And still we all know how superficial such national ebullitions really are; how they melt away into the air at the slightest change in the political weather indications; and how readily the individual members of the

various nations fraternize on meeting. However, sensation-mongering seems to be a necessity of human nature that has not grown less since the days of the eighteenth century coffee-house, but has apparently increased in intensity and resonance in the ratio of dynamite to gunpowder. There is little capital for the sensationalist in "sweetness and light,” and the real student of politics makes a poor writer of scare lines. Fortunately, this sensation-mongering is as weak as it is superficial; beyond providing entertainment at the breakfast table or varying the dull routine of daily life with a little factitious excitement, it has small weight.

Of course, the real reason for this lies in the fact that the feeling of a common humanity is after all strong and deep, and that the men in whose hands the destinies of nations repose keep themselves tolerably free from the constant excitement reflected in the daily press. And in general the substantial men of a nation, who are the leaders of its public opinion, well know the relative unimportance of foreign politicizing. They know that national strength grows from within, and that no hostility or bluster from without can impede a country's development if strong and healthy, but that no diplomacy can save it if diseased at the core. They build their policy, therefore, on the great interests of their nation. To let these realize themselves, and to remove obstructions that stand in their way are the purposes of responsible statesmen. Such men will always favor a friendly understanding among nations, because international irritation of the artificial kind is only an obstruction, and can never benefit anybody. Though in this matter we deal with imponderabilia, the upbuilding of a friendly sentiment, of a mutual understanding among nations, is the first duty of wise statesmanship even from the national point of view. Fundamental conflicts of interests cannot, perhaps, be settled in this manner; but fruitless irritation may be avoided, and the business among nations may take on a rational and liberal character.

Though both in the United States and in Germany the national spirit is very strong, there exists between these two countries an ample basis for friendly relations, through which conflicts of interests can be moderated and the achievement of the common ends of humanity rendered less. difficult. While the great current of her political life has flowed from the constitutional precedents of Puritan England, the United States has in matters of intellectual interest more, perhaps, in common with Germany than with any other country. Not only has our university system been deeply influenced by German methods in the laboratory and historical methods of investigation; not only has the flower of our educated

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