Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-08-10
EXPANSION.
The Chicago Times opens caustic edito-

The Chicago Times opens caustic edito-
rial with these words:
This journal has always held that this coun-
try is embarrassed by too many neighbors. and
that the sooner it relieves itself OF this obstacle
the more rapid and uuimpeded would be its pro
gress The only things which bar the march of
this Union, which delay its progress, and which
interfere with its mission, are Canada on the
one side and Mexico on the other. We lack
room for our necessary expansion, and shall
continue to lack until we reach the isthmus on
the south and the Arctic Ocean on the north.
We lack nothing Of the kind. Before
we attempt to introduce new peoples in
bulk, utterly foreign to our system, into
the scheme of this republic, let us finish
up the work in hand. That will take us a
century or two yet In the first place the
United States is not yet sufficiently popu-
lated. We have grown too rapidly by
importation and not rapidly enough in
home development. The center of popu-
lation is altogether too far east, and until
it has located some hundreds of miles
further westward we will not be able to
begin the work of absorbing nations. In
the second place it is very much to be
doubted if Mexico, or any part of it, is
not better as a neighbor than as a posses
sion. The people of that republic could
not in century be assimilated with ours.
They are the product of civilization alto
gether different in sentiment and ambi
ton, and not hundred years of mingling
would wholly eradicate the dislike enter
tagged by them for US, or the idea of in
feriority in which we hold them. Then,
too, the United States is not strong enough
to enter upon the guarding of any addi-
tional coast lines. Before we come to that
we must expect to devote about twenty
five years to the reformation of
our navy and the building up Of our coast
defenses. There would be less difficulty in
absorbing the Dominion of Canada, but
people unwilling to come, as are the Cana
dians and as tits likely they Will continue
are not desirable element in our system,
and this applies to Mexico as well.
Generally, in conclusion, it is unwise to
encourage the spirit of annexation of these
countries. They are inimical to us in
custom and desires, the Times confesses;
they could be projected into our political
system only at the risk of breaking it
down, and only at the hazard of imperil-
ing republican institutions by the undue
strain that would be put upon them. The
nation can stomach and digest a great for
eign clement, but when it comes to swal-
loving two entire nations-in effective
apprehend that the American people nei-
ther desire it, nor are they able to foot
the bill of expense Or willing to
take the risk such experiments
would involve. We have territory
enough for this generation and the
next half dozen, and even with the matur-
ity of the last of the latter the United
States will not have attained its full
stature, nor our present possessions all be
brought to the fulfllment of their highest
possibilities. Every time there is little
furry on the borders the cry of annexation
is started. 1t began thirty-five years ago,
and has had regular periods of rise and de-
cadence. The Cutting case and the Extra
dition Treaty just now have resurrected
the old annexationists, and they have
begun to preach from their bones precisely
as they did Il quarter Of Il century AGO.
about room for expansion" Yet, for all
these years the country has been growing
and expanding ,-.thia her borders, and
more rapidly than has any other nation
known to history, and still there are six
States ard eight Territories that are 50
sparsely settled and So little developed
that their constant cry is for population,
capital and internal development No,
we are not in need as yet of an enlarged
national waistband.