Show AFGHANISTAN The news from England in regard to the Russian advance toward India and the fight between the Russians and Afghans Af-ghans at Penjdah indicates that war between be-tween Russia and England is almost inevitable in-evitable Russia has been sending friendly friend-ly assurances to England all the time and yet she has as steadily been advancing into Afghanistan notwithstanding her urotestations to the contrary She has been steadily moving forward in the hope that England would acquiesce seeing that if England presisted in her demands the Ministry would either be compelled to declare war or back down and go to the country The preparations of England for war have been energetic and extensive extens-ive and such as to make the government govern-ment of the Czar pause at times but not to entirely halt The prospects now are that England will demand a halt and if Russia does not accord one she will more than likely try and enforce one The cause for Englands alarm is not the preservation of the integrity of the Ameers country but her own empire em-pire in India and she fears that if the Bear shall come to possess the mountain fastnesses of Afghanistan the Lion may be forced from his lair and compelled to battle again for his kingdoms king-doms and empire in the East Both with England and with Russia the star of empire em-pire takes its way to the East and not to the West England in the East deems herself there not merely by the right of conquest but by divine right as the conservator of civilization and Christianity England a government of classes despises and insults in-sults the government of caste and denies to a population of above two hundred millions all right of participation in the government under which the two hundred millions or more live The people of India are used as a source of taxation and are allowed to serve their goyernors in war as soldiers and in peace as slaves To the Indians are denied the rights which the Southern States denied the negroes prior to the war and for the denial the same reasons are given that were always given in the South for the same demandsthat they are treacherous and to entrust to them any share in the government was dangerous to the white population We have learned better than this in America so far as the negroes are concerned and in our treatment of them we have come to know that reason and freedom are better safeguards than all laws which forbid the acquisition of knowledge and a participation in government govern-ment England has not learned this and Ireland is as mistrustfully treated and governed as India and she believes that only AngloSaxon idea of free government govern-ment is fit for man while all other ideas are wrong and should not be allowed any sway any hore This is the vulnerable point in English theories of freedom perhaps it is the vulnerable point of each nation to think that it is the chosen one and that its ideas are to become predominant This same idea is likewise the idea of Russia and she believes and is striving to enforce the theory that the Slavs are to dominate the East and that when the true Russian empire shall be realized it will be panSlavic and include Merv Af ghanistan various provinces of Turkey parts of northwestern India and all surrounding sur-rounding countries which are more Slav than anything else It is the dream of universal empire in which all nations indulge in-dulge when riding on the waves of prosperity pros-perity The awakening from this reverie has always proven that the dreams of nations like the dreams of man are unreal un-real and that he who dreams away his life l has accomplished nothing The burden which nations impose upon themselves them-selves is the weight which crushes them England is daily increasing her burdens and the maximum of weight which she can carry is fast being reached while Russia seeks to at once assume a burden to which her strength is not equal And in our own country there have been and still are those who would impose the American idea of government upon all the political divisions of the Western hemisphere and believe that the United States are destined to absorb Canada and the States of Mexico Mex-ico and Central America When we begin to entertain such theories we begin to dream and we should remember that dreams come but in sleep and that sleep is the brother death I |