which consolidate a nation. Its connections were too
loose. Chamberlain has, by the Boer War, begun its unification.
Canadians have fallen on the same field with England's soldiers.

"Australians have poured out their blood as a common sacrifice for
England's flag. The empire has been knit together by a common heroism,
a common sacrifice, a common glory, and a common cause. It should not
be hard to induce all portions of the empire to unite on a great
scheme of parliamentary representation. I call that great
statesmanship."

"Yes, indeed it is," said the English litterateur, "but Joseph
Chamberlain never had such a thought."

The point of the conversation is that, whether Mr. Chamberlain had
this thought or not, the _materials for the thought existed_. The
conditions for this really constructive statesmanship were there. They
awaited the hand of the master. Conditions of equal magnitude exist in
half-a-dozen places in the world. Russian development of Siberia and
seizure of Manchuria are one.

It had for several years appeared to me that Manchuria was the point
about which the international politics of the world would swirl for
the next quarter of a century. So certain did this seem, that I
hastened to this great future battle-field in the year 1901; and while
the diplomats of all the nations, including our own, scoffed at the
possibilities of war between Russia and Japan, the certainty of that
mighty contest could be read in the very stars that shone above
Manchuria, in the very Japanese barracks, on every Japanese
drill-ground.

Settlement of this tremendous dispute will call for larger
statesmanship than the world has seen for half a century. The
movements of all the powers at the present crisis, and, indeed, their
entire Oriental policy, are of the most solemn concern to the Republic
not only for the immediate moment, but even more for the future.

This is especially true of Japan; for, with cheap labor, rare aptitude
for manufacture, and propinquity of position, the Island Empire now
becomes the most formidable competitor for the trade of China.

And China is the only--or at least the richest--unexploited market
where American factories and farms can, in the future, dispose of
their accumulating surplus. England almost monopolized China's coast
markets until, recently, Germany began rapidly to overhaul her. But
Japan will, in the near future, distance both. American interests in
the Far East are vital eve