Page:The Pacific Monthly vol. 14.djvu/41

THE MOMENTOUS STRUGGLE FOR MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC

By H. W. Scott

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Pacific Monthly presents in this contribution by Hon. H. W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian, the introductory article to the series on the "Coming Supremacy of the Pacific." The series will continue for six months and will be written by Wolf Von Schierbrand, Ph. D., author of "America, Asia and the Pacific," and other works treating the problems and possibilities of the Pacific seaboard. It has been deemed peculiarly fitting to begin the series at this time and to illustrate it in this number with Exposition views, inasmuch as the centennial we celebrate means not so much a retrospect as a forecast of greater things to come. The articles by Dr. Von Schierbrand will treat all of the important phases of the questions that have arisen as a consequence of the great awakening to western possibilities. The illustrations will be a feature, and, on the whole, the series will be of exceptional interest and value to all who wish to be in touch with a struggle for the mastery which promises to be one of the greatest in the history of mankind and which has already decided the fate of nations.

MASTERY of the Pacific is involved in the great drama now being played in the Orient. Japan, regarded hitherto as an insignificant, or at best, as a secondary power, resists Russia and has present triumph over her. This, however, if we may use military language, is but an affair of outposts. The actual struggle is yet to come. Among the contestants in this struggle — a struggle not necessarily of arms, but of com-

Looking toward the Band Stand from the Bridge of Nations,

Note. — The illustrations of the Exposition are from photographs taken by the Official Photographic Co.