THE WORLD'S FINAL GREAT WAR.
By John Brisben Walker
[John Brisben Walker, in the Cosmopolitan for December.] THE commanding position which Russia has grasped along the frontiers of China, India and Persia seems to leave no doubt as to her intentions. We are to have one great final war, which promises to be so frightful in its waste of human life and so costly in its expenditure of treasure, that it will be a lasting horror; and it must settle the question of the world's civilization. Napoleon predicted that in one hundred years the world would be either Cossack or republican. Busy with home affairs, neither governments nor peoples seem to understand how threatening is the Cossack rule—even to America itself. Russia has to-day one hundred and twenty-nine millions of population. Persistently carrying out a plan conceived more than forty years ago, she has quietly occupied every position in Asia which would eventually enable her to annex the four hundred millions of China; then the two hundred and eighty millions of India, and finally the eight millions of Persia. Year after year Russian army posts have been advanced, reinforced and built into large commands; until to-day Russia is ready to attack, not China alone, but along her entire frontier line in Asia. In the event of war, only the most supreme exertions by England, France, Austria, and Italy, re-enforced by the United States, can stop the Cossack advance. The fact that, for her own purposes, Germany has entered into compact to act with Russia, makes the situation one of the utmost difficulty—of the most extreme danger. For once, the German Emperor seems to be short-sighted. Whatever part of China may be conceded to him temporarily, eventually he must find himself opposed to Russia as certainly as Japan and England are to-day. Does any one doubt Russia's plans? Never was policy more clearly written. There can be no question about it, and if our attention were not so absorbed in home affairs, the American public would quickly understand it. During two years spent in Peking and Northern China, in military affairs, the writer became convinced that no obstacle would be likely to exist to the extension of Russian dominion toward the East, unless China herself should be built up into a strong military power. The building of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the occupation of Manchuria would be the first steps. It was not anticipated at that time that the plan of campaign would be so far-reaching as to bring Russia simultaneously into China, India and Persia. There can be no question that entrance into Manchuria was part of the long-preconceived plan. Very likely the Boxer troubles were stirred up with a view to giving excuse for this entry, and distracting the attention of the world. Having entered, Russia had no intention of leaving. The pretense of evacuation was only because at the time she was not ready to begin battle. Other nations, and especially the United States, have been blind to what this movement really meant. It is now no longer necessary that additional Russians should be brought in to capture China. The Manchurians and Mongols furnish splendid fighting material, at least so far as private soldiers go. They can subsist on a little rice, make long marches, sleep in the open, obey orders, and quickly learn to handle fire-arms with precision. They can be substituted and kept satisfied with a total expenditure of not above six or eight dollars a month, as against from five to eight times that cost for the American soldier; and the Russians have the officers ready to put over them. Russia is now established along the frontiers, its forts built, and its navies in the Eastern harbors of Asia. Many officers have arrived, and vast quantities of stores and arms have been shipped in. More than one hundred and fifty thousand Russian troops are either on the ground or within call, as the nucleus of an army of occupation. It would require but a short time to drill natives in order to put half a million men in the field, sweep down on Peking and over Northern China. Let the civilized world stop its business long enough to consider this spectacle and ask, Whence will the force be brought to combat the Russian forces in China? But let Russia annex four hundred millions of Chinese subjects, and with this low-priced labor build armaments; then India and Persia are certain to fall. America feels confident in her strength, and, added to England and France, we imagine that we might conquer the world. But where would these three nations stand if Russia had at command two-thirds of the world's population? Does she need money to conduct her campaigns? By weight of numbers she would move down and capture it. If Russia should be permitted to retain her position in Manchuria, the Cossack will presently hold the world by brute force. I am opposed to war. I do not believe in war. I hope there will never be another war. But if there can be a just war, it is called for now. Either America and southern Europe must fight Russia at this time, or concede to her all of Asia. Vain as the United States is of her strength, she will find occasion in the near future to regret present indifference. Manchuria is but the stepping-stone to China. China captured, the balance of power is determined. The hundred years covered by Napoleon's prediction has a decade still to run—a decade in which to determine whether the world is to be Cossack or Republican. The people of the United States have been so intent upon their own little corner of the world, that they have failed to reflect on what a Cossack world would mean. But this Manchurian question is a matter of such tremendous importance that it demands thoughtful determination. Russia is doing her work so quietly, so diplomatically, and with such deceptive professions of good faith, that we stand like children reviewing events without comprehension of what they mean, or of the influence at work upon our own destiny.