AMERICA AS A MILITARY POWER

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13052, 11 March 1911, Page 4

AMERICA AS A MILITARY POWER

With a fortified Panama Canal before their eyes as a permanent reminder of their undertaking to do the work and accept the responsibilities of a great military Power, tho Anvcnean ■people of th* future will turn their attention more seriously to the development of their army .awl navy, lnat appears to us inevitable (says the London "Spectator"). In has remarkable hook, "The Valour of Ignorance, General Homer Lea expressed Ins be-| lief that the population of the United State® is so hopelessly Jiet3rogenous tiiai there is iw> common, ideal, and nothing like a general aspiration to - ■wards good citizensluip. Ho bclieverthat Americans are more criminal than any civilised nation, and that there is. in'the, mind of the mass a distinct! tinge of "fenuniism," by wliich he sceifl to mean iraationalJty. He thinks that if these, things wore not ibo the nation would long ago have rec-; ognised how feebly its armed power meets t)i^ obligations laid on it by such a contentious political <piincOple as the Monroe doctrine and by the provocations giwmi to Japan. In a strategical cense the Phillipinos, Hawaii, Samoa, und Alaska aire all bowkcs of weakness. Seizing these places »s bases, Japan might conduct a campaign on th© Pacific slope with ridiculous ease. General Lea is haunted by this fear. Well, lie is a prophet, and the visions of prophets are vivkl. For ourselves, Mte do not by any means deny ih» dangers. But we do not take it to be proved that the wonderful faculty of the United States for turning good Americans out of any maternal snow* any signs of failing. And if the solidarity of tho nation holds good we should bo surprised, after all, if tits performance of <the North in tne Csvdl War in wddftag a formidable army Under stress could not bo repeated.— J"JST.Z. HeraM." '