ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION

Mr. H. M. Tomlinson, who is to be remembered for his recent lecture at the Harvard Union, writes in the current Harper's Magazine on a subject which is evidently close to his heart the rapport of Britain and America. He approaches the subject, however, from a new angle--not with the old words concerning common heritage and future, and the friendship of the Anglo-Saxo, race-facts, which if they be true at all are too true to need repeating--but with a dire prediction of the consequences should America engage in a war with England. That it would be a large, expensive, and spectacular war goes without saying; Mr. Tomlinson, however, predicts a complete world breakdown as an inevitable result, a breakdown which would leave the United States with no market for its commerce, and hence with a barren and fatal victory.

That such a warning is immediately needed is at least doubtful. The value and interest of his statement lies in its frankness. Such reasoning, brought home to the mass of the population in any country, would do more towards a permanent peace than all the tea-parties given by the English Speaking Union. It is a reasoning which might be applied not only to the United States and England but to any other two nations or groups of nations. More cogent than all appeals to past friendships and obligations, is a frank statement as to the result,-- win or lose.