Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 56:224 (Oct 1899)
Article: America And The Far East
Author: William Byron Forbush

BSac 56:224 (Oct 1899) p. 759

America And The Far East

Rev. William Byron Forbush

A great historic incident is never solitary. As the lightning flash is the illuminant of the approaching electric storm, so an historic incident is the flash which throws light upon the great historic movement behind it. It has been remarked that the entrance of two American naval commanders into two Oriental ports forty-five years apart successively opened to America the Far East. This statement exaggerates the importance of those courageous and noteworthy deeds. The entrance of Commodore Perry into the harbor of Yedo, while it may have precipitated, did not cause the inevitable appearance of Japan in the arena of the world’s affairs. And so the sailing of Commodore Dewey into Manila Bay did not create, but only made manifest, the problem of the Far East which, sooner or later, America was bound to face. And each year that elapsed between the thunder of Perry’s guns and the flash of Dewey’s cannon saw the steady growth of the clouds and heard the increasing murmur of the storm which we now see to be upon us. This statement is fundamental to a correct understanding of the position of our country in the affairs of Asia to-day. If we believe that George Dewey unwittingly created a problem which never existed before, and that this problem consists in nothing more than the dilemma as to what we are to do with the Philippines, we are far from seeing more than a small portion of the facts that are coming into sight. Unless we remember that there is a great Far Eastern problem in which all the

BSac 56:224 (Oct 1899) p. 760

world is interested, and that no nation can do business or exert influence in the western Pacific without becoming involved in it, we shall fail to understand that the Philippine problem is the least of those which we are set to answer.

Let me name certain underlying facts that emphasize the largeness of our Far Eastern problem.

1. The first fact which I name is that of the Conflict of Races. The last millennium of the world’s history has been the story of a duel between the Teutonic and the Latin races. This is a large statement, and I have space only barely to indicate its proof. When, at about the same time, the great Western Roman Empire fell before the savage Visigoths, and England was beginning to emerge as a nation from its scattered tribes, there was seen but the first dim prophecy of what was to come. Then Europe plunged into the Dark Ages. When she emerged, the battle lines were distinct. Upon one side were Spain and Portugal, the two mightiest naval and colonial powers in the world, and the Papacy, with its great temporal power; upon the other were England, now a strong nation, and the coalescing states of the. Germans. To-day the...