Page 142 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Anglo-American Reunion. 123

or not, is so marked a symptom — in these
jarring sounds which betoken that there is no
immediate danger of the leading peoples turn-
ing their swords into ploughshares— are to be
heard the assurance that decay has not touched
yet the majestic fabric erected by so many
centuries of courageous battling. In this same
pregnant strife the United States doubtless will
be led, by undeniable interests and aroused na-
tional sympathies, to play a part, to cast aside
the policy of isolation which befitted her infancy,
and to recognize that, whereas once to avoid
European entanglement was essential to the
development of her individuality, now to take
her share of the travail of Europe is but to
assume an inevitable task, an appointed lot, in
the work of upholding the common interests of
civilization. Our Pacific slope, and the Pacific
colonies of Great Britain, with an instinc-
tive shudder have felt the threat, which able
Europeans have seen in the teeming multitudes
of central and northern Asia ; while their over-
flow into the Pacific Islands shows that not
only westward by land, but also eastward by
sea, the flood may sweep. I am not careful,
however, to search into the details of a great