THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS. T HE result of the American elections is
a little dis- appointing. The voters have given the President a working majority in both Houses, and the policy of founding an American Colonial Empire will, therefore, go forward steadily until March, 1900. The enthusiasm for that policy, however, though marked in the West and in the Pacific States, has not been sufficient to overbear the pressure of feeling roused by the gross mismanagement of the land operations in the war, the battle of the currencies, and the failure to deal severely with the giant monopolies. The total result, therefore, is that while Mr. McKinley and his party have greatly increased their strength in the Senate, they have lost ground over a wide area in the House of Representatives, and next year will have a majority in the latter of only fifteen, instead of fifty- seven. Still, the Administration will have a majority in both Houses, and with President, Senate, and House all belonging to one party, the Executive will be able to act with energy and decision. It is the Senate, not the House, which can keep Presidents "on the worry." Mr. McKinley, who is always rather the agent of the people than their leader, is understood to interpret their verdict in this sense, and for the remainder of his first term—some eighteen months—he will not swerve from the policy he has already approved, the policy, that is, of depriving Spain of her colonies, with a moderate grant to pay off the older portion of the Philippine Debt.
It is probable that this policy is more popular than appears from the vote, the anger aroused by the mis- management of the Army and the reluctance to punish it having been very deep, and it may become more popular yet owing to events in Europe. We are unable to believe that any Power contemplates a defence of Spain by force of arms at the risk of Great Britain joining forces with her natural ally, but we take it to be certain that an attempt will be made to bring heavy diplomatic pressure to bear on Washington. The fear of the new policy of the Union, which brings its gigantic force directly to bear on European politics, is universal among the states- men of the Continent ; and they cannot get it entirely out of their heads that if they stand together, as they did when they coerced Japan into giving up her conquests, America may yield as the island Empire of the Pacific ultimately did. They do not, as we have seen during the past month, quite understand the Anglo-Saxon character. They can, with their habitudes of mind, hardly believe that a Republic without a great regular Army can be really strong for defence, and they have registered the blunders and the waste visible in the invasion of Cuba as proofs of a weak organisation for war. Moreover, they have special grievances. Finance weighs heavily in Paris, Spanish bonds and shares are held there in great masses, and the French Government recognises with a certain dismay the consequences which may follow even a partial repudiation by Spain. The German Emperor, again, is never content when Berlin loses any money, and had, moreover, formed hopes of obtaining stations in the Philippines which it vexes him to abandon, as he must abandon them if the American flag flies over the whole group. He is going, therefore, to visit Cadiz and, as is rumoured, Minorca, just to see with his own eyes whether the Spanish seaboard is as poorly provided for defence as is reported, perhaps also to display an en- Womging friendliness. Italy is never very friendly to North America, where her Neapolitan emigrants are always unpopular from their readiness to accept low wages, and are sometimes roughly treated; and Austria is angry about tariffs and deeply concerned for the Arch- duchess, whose son's throne may be overset as a conse- quence of the war. We look, therefore, for representations at Washington to be made with a certain acrimony which will greatly irritate national pride, and if they are per- sisted in, may erase for the time all party divisions. If the Continent threatens President McKinley with inter- ference, the whole American people will support him in a reply which, however moderate in words, will be in essence a clear defiance. Such a contingency is regarded here as next to impossible, but we think Englishmen underrate the dislike felt in the European Courts for the great, and sometimes rude, Republic, the excessive fear enter- tained of an Anglo-American Alliance, and the astonishing idea which Continentals entertain of Anglo-Saxon power and willingness to reduce them to poverty. They really believe that if the Anglo-American Alliance ever became intimate and warm, the two Powers could destroy the fleets of the world, and then monopolise all sea-borne trade, thus reducing the Continent to agriculture for its means of subsistence. Having the power, the two "selfish nations" would, they think, be sure to do it, unless prevented by force, and they do not see whence the force is to be obtained. Such fears seem to Englishmen and Americans to be of the nature of nightmares, but that grave men entertain them on the Continent we have no doubt whatever. This is the reason why, though Lord Salis- bury at the Mansion House expressed British feeling for America in the curtest phrase, and obviously with extreme reserve, yet the whole Continent has fastened on that expression, and read into it all manner of menacing sub- meanings.
It is, we see, announced with a sort of authority that the elections settle the currency question for the present in favour of a gold standard. It may be so, probably is so, for the bulletin-writers know, as we do not, the pledges given by the new Senators and Congressmen, but our readers will do well not to feel too sure. The interests of silver are supported not only by the Silver Ring, which is more or less self-interested or corrupt, but by an illusion which we have noted in the American mind for the last thirty years. You cannot rid an average American farmer of the impression that if there is much cur- rency, gold, silver, or paper, " money " will be cheap, and the grip of the usurer, the taxgatherer, and the fore- staller upon his small income will be lighter and more capable of postponement. Nor can you convince him that it is neither the duty nor within the power of the State to produce such cheapness by law. Those two ideas are always present with him, and until they are removed there will always be danger in America of a "currency craze," which may be monometallist, or bimetallist, or " silverite," or paperite, but will be governed in any case by feeling and not by hard scientific reason. For the moment wheat pays, and wages are fairly high, but let there be a turn in the industrial tide, and we shall hear again of silver, of State loans to pay off mortgages on real estate, and, it may be, of much more imaginative plans.
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