their own uses. It did not very greatly matter, perhaps, that our opinions on foreign affairs were British opinions bolted without chewing when we were content to sit at home and take no part in the world's affairs. Now that we have broadened and extended our policy across the oceans we must do our own thinking and must base it upon information which we can rely on or we shall be continually One of the great needs of the time for Americans as a people is emancipation from their accustomed diet of predigested foreign news. That time-honored clearing house for the world's happenings, London, has outlived its usefulness for us Americans henceforth must contrive in some way or other to be their own purveyors of information as to foreign events. London's marvelous misled. in this regard. How We stores of information relative to all manner of governments and peoples have been a prime convenience to us, but we cannot The British government as afford longer to permit ourselves to view Mistakes. a going concern of great all other nations through British specpower possesses a plant comtacles. We do ourselves a great wrong representation abroad is incomplete and plete and effective. American by judging foreigners near and far as the largely in the hands of amateurs. It may British judge them; we also wrong those be conceded that many improvements have upon whom we bestow imported British been made by the government at Washprejudice. Every tub should stand upon ington in its diplomatic and consular its own bottom and the star-spangled tub service during recent years without rebecause of the great financial and govern- ice is still painfully incomplete and othercan be no exception to this rule. London, ceding from the contention that the servmental forces centered there, is a whisper- wise faulty. Too frequently our official ing gallery for the entire planet. News ar- representatives abroad lean upon their riving in that city from any quarter imme- British associates, contenting themselves diately takes on a British tinge, if by any with forwarding to Washington British chance it has failed to acquire that tinge information and British conclusions based at the point of departure. From the British angle of observation, as a matter of as well as the American people are in danto the aspect it wears for British inter- that the United States, containing as it course, all news is good or bad, according ger of being misled. It is an anomaly ests. This is entirely natural. The trouble does millions of persons who formerly reBritish version and apply it trustingly to generally ignorant of foreign tongues and comes when the American people take the sided in European countries, is still so upon it. Thus the American government (Copyright 1903, by the CURRENT ENCYCLOPEDIA COMPANY.) COUNT CASSINI. The Russian Ambassador to the United States. by which admiration is synonymous with foreign institutions. The educated European commonly speaks fluently from two to half a dozen languages. We are so busy melting up in our crucible the aliens who apply to us for citizenship and making Americans of them that we do not recognize the advantage of becoming fairly familiar with the languages, the aspirations. and the methods of government of great nations beyond the Atlantic. On the contrary, we adopt the foolish and dangerous practice of taking the cue from London whenever we are called upon to make up our minds about a European ruler or statesman, policy or incident. Until we change all this we shall never do justice to ourselves or to continental nations. Russia and the British. In the past we have had in Russia, and we still have, a friend and well wisher. Yet it seems impossible for us to regard that nation in any light save that of British prejudice. Russia is a huge and despotic country, governed by a bureaucracy which it is impossible to admire except in the archaic meaning of the word COUNT TOLSTOI. The champion of the Russian peasant classes. atrocities should be based on actual knowledge of them and should not be colored by versions especially adjusted to Great Britain's foreign policy. No disparagement to the latter country is meant by this, since prejudice based on national needs or aspirations is not peculiar to any people. American the Mediterranean. The Anglo-Japanese efforts to induce Russia to retire from Manchuria after it has built its railway across that province and made for itself the splendid seaport of Dalny on the Yellow Sea far south of Vladivostok are so futile as to be absolutely insincere. The recent public announcement by Lord Lansdowne, British foreign minister, that the establishment of a naval base or a While we are told continTrade in ually by the British that RusManchuria, sian diplomacy is distinctly oriental in that it consists of falsehoods and evasions, the fact remains that in the past the United States has had no cause for serious complaint against Russia in this respect. We wish to maintain the open door for trade in Manchuria as well as in the rest of China. Russia has promised that it shall be maintained. Here is an excellent opportunity to test on our own account the sincerity of M. Witte. It is already reported from Peking that China's recent refusal to open new ports in Manchuria to American trade is due to Russian opposition, but it would be unjust to condemn Russia on the unsupported word of a Chinese diplomat. It is asserted also that Manchuria's trade in American cotton goods recently has received a severe reverse through the action of Russian officials in compelling Chinese merchants to make enormous purchases of Russian goods. Such reports, of which London is prolific, naturally tend to make Americans doubt the good faith of Russian ministers; yet Ambassador McCormick insists that he has positive assurances from M. Witte that the latter is a stanch friend of the open door policy in Manchuria, holding that American trade is important to the development of the country and consequently to the financial success of the Trans-Siberian railway. We should see before very long whether British correspondents or American diplomats have the better understanding of Russia's intentions THE SHAH OF PERSIA. Whose favor is courted by both England and Russia. when it gives us categorical assurances as fortified port in the Persian gulf by any to its Manchurian policy. Trying to Checkmate Russia. no The United States can have sympathy with Great Britain's persistent and long continued efforts to keep RusThe sia away from the unfrozen seas. other power would be regarded as a grave menace to British interests and would be resisted with all the means at the government's disposal was, of course, a notice to Russia that it must not try for an outlet in that direction. Russia is so tremendous an antagonist that Great Britain does well Turk is tolerated in Europe because his to retard the growth of its vast authority possession of Constantinople prevents in two continents only in case it cannot Russian ships from securing an outlet to arrive at a safe working agreement with MAP SHOWING PROPOSED ROUTE OF THE BAGDAD RAILWAY FROM KONIA TO KOWEIT AND THE LOCATION OF BANDAR ABBAS, THE SOUTHERN TERMINUS OF THE NEW RUSSIAN RAILWAY. the Czar's government. It is absurd to expect that Russia will change its policy or retire upon itself in any direction because of British opposition. It is bound to crush through to the southern seas sooner or later and no foreign government can prevent it. Russia works on interior lines and along great railway systems projected for that purpose from the heart of the empire. British fleets can never prevail against these tactics and British armies are equally powerless to hold Russia back. While England contemplates this problem of the glacier-like advance of Russia, it cannot be an unprejudiced observer of Russian institutions. It is imperative that the people of the United States shall not absorb British prejudice in regard to Russia without good reason. They should investigate and judge for themselves. Another Lord Lansdowne's declaration regarding the Persian gulf has been very generally recognized as an application of the principle of the Monroe Doctrine to British interests in Asia. Since a naval |