"THE GLORIOUS FOURTH."

 The famous Declaration of Independence, which accompanied the creation of a new and wonderfully virile and progressive Power in North America, was adopted on July 4, 1776, and the United States to-day comprises 40 sovereignties linked together by a federal bond for common national objects, but possessing their own administrations for local domestic affairs. The Republic was founded upon the Anglo-Saxon's ineradicable devotion to the principles of civil and religious liberty. Through malign influences, exercised by a decadent Court and corrupt or weak Ministers, the claims of sturdy and self-reliant pioneer settlers were ignored or misrepresented in the motherland, and a fratricidal war was waged, which resulted in the loss to England of her then fairest and best colonial inheritance. During many years enmities smouldered; but eventually all traces of rancour were removed, and the present generation has witnessed the evolution of a firm and fast friendship between the two nations. Leading Britons have freely deplored the follies and wrongs perpetrated by their ancestors, and paid generous tribute to the achievements of eminent Americans on behalf of noble causes. England's heart was moved by the costly and sanguinary struggle which ended in the emancipation of the Southern slaves, and the consolidation of the Union. In the words of Emerson, Abraham Lincoln "conquered the public opinion of Canada, England, and France." A common language and literature, and aims and interests which testify to oneness of spirit relatively to the march of Christian civilization, have induced Britons and Americans gladly to join hands as brothers, and to determine never again to meet as foes in warfare. The celebration of "The Glorious Fourth" to-day will be characterized by the heartiest expressions of goodwill from all British communities, owing to the expected ratification at an early date of the general arbitration treaty, which solemnly records that epoch making decision.
Australia's regard for the United States and its founders was indicated in her choice of the American Constitution as a model on which to form a federal union under the British Crown. It was also enthusiastically manifested during the visit to Commonwealth seaports of an American fleet of warships a few years ago. High tariff walls on both sides of the Pacific are formidable obstacles to commercial intercourse; but there are signs that Americans will shortly reform their fiscal policy with the view of encouraging oversea trade. Recent remarkable Democratic successes at the Congressional elections, and the strong support given by President Taft and his friends to the proposed reciprocity treaty with Canada, will almost certainly be followed by tariff changes which will bring America into more living union with British countries and the outside world generally. Far-seeing politicians at Washington declare that their country must have foreign markets for its manufactures, and these can be obtained only by means of reciprocal agreements, which will practically abolish the existing heavy duties. Developments in the Far East and in the Pacific have obliged the United States to look beyond her own boundaries and become a world Power. Possession of the Panama Canal will by and by greatly increase her influence and responsibilities, and require the constant exercise of wise and tactful statesmanship concerning her relations with foreign Powers. Many Americans lament the growth of the Imperial spirit. They would like the Republic ever to stand aloof from other nations, and to pursue an even path of non-intervention. Such an ideal might be desirable, but in a world where International and racial upheavals periodically occur it is outside the pale of practical politics. "Nations, like kings, are not good by facility and complaisance." Easy good nature has at times been the dangerous foible of the Republic; but its statesmen are now alive to the need of vigilance and firmness in order to protect its best interests.
The greatest danger to the United States, as is pointed out by Mr. Roosevelt, is from within. Race suicide threatens in time, to produce a momentous transformation. It would be a fact of enormous importance if the dominant race of immigrants to North America, before which the Indian aborigines faded away, were in its turn to disappear before the mighty stream of immigration from eastern and southern Europe. In a former age the settlement of Germanic tribes in Italy shook the German civilization to its foundations, and some American writers are fearful that Anglo-American civilization will suffer seriously at the hands of a new race, compounded of Slav, Magyar, and Italian elements, which is tending to replace the old American stock. All observers of American life contend that social contrasts under the Stars and Stripes are far less evident than racial contrasts. In an extensive quarter of New York the side streets recall Naples, and the Mafia is reminiscent of Sicily; in another quarter the Jews of Eastern Europe have reassembled in all their grinding poverty; other parts are inhabited chiefly by Hungarians, Russians, and other nationalities. This condition is typical of other large centres. The stream of white immigration which flows unceasingly into the American continent has in the course of the last few years changed in character. The Celtic element has notably lessened. Britons are not attracted to the States as they were formerly. During the period 1901 to 1909 the immigrants from eastern and southern Europe numbered 5,477,000 compared with only 80,000 from British and Germanic countries. "If the developments of recent years continue," writes Mr. L. Quessel, "a new Slavonic kingdom will ultimately arise on American soil, larger and mightier than any of the Slav countries of Europe." All available facts show that the dominant race in the Union, which forcibly prevents the reproduction of Mongolian immigrants and discourages by social oppression the increase of the negroes, is itself losing the will for propagation in a measure indispensable to assure its own continuance. The Anglo-American population seems, indeed, to have begun to decline. If its present low birthrate should continue, nothing can save that race from ultimate extinction as a political and social factor in the nation, but a revival of the Anglo-Saxon and German streams of immigration. The selfish pessimism which accounts for so many childless marriages may have calamitous effects which the best possible system of public education will not mitigate.

Register (Adelaide,  1911, ) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58443928