The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-08-11

circle of hungry dogs who fear each
others teeth too much to touch it.
That state only has sure lease of life
which holds land enough to permit
growth athome and to inspire respect
abroad. Here we may contemplate
our condition, both present and pro-
spective, with a great deal of satisfac-
ton.
It has been estimated that if our
present population of 60,00O,OOO were
increased to 2OO,000,000, every man,
woman and child in our midst might
have a plat of ten acres. Our territory
then is large enough to permit growth
at home and to inspire respect abroad;
large enough to encourage the hope
that not by any other nation, nor by
all other nations, shall we ever be
crowded out of existence.
The character of the boundaries be-
tween nationalities is another matter
OF consequence. When states are
separated only by imaginary lines,
drawn upon paper, the pen or the
sword that made them can as easily
break them. If no natural barriers
protect the boundaries, the farm and
forge, store and shop must be robbed
of half their workers to supply
soldiers; the country must be drained
of material wealth to, equip and main
tain fleets and forts, every department
of industry will be paralyzed, the de-
velopment of the country impeded, and
all classes must be burdened by pres
sure Of taxation. Even then, the adj
joining state that can call longer
muster-roll, train a sharper com
mander, or invent a better rifle, will
be occasionally swapping off slices Of
the hereditary domain. No state is
safe when it's independence can be
maintained only by it's sons as soldiers.
On the other hand, when the bounds of
empire are marked by nature upon
the soil, in the shape of broad and
rapid rivers, or, better still, by noun
tain chains, or, best of all, by an ocean,
the state is safer than if a hundred
Thousand soldiers stood in arms.
History is full of illustrations: the
ancient monarchies, of Assyria,. Chal-
dea and Persia fell as rapidly as they.
arose because their land was vast
plain destitute of natural defences:
while China, surrounded by desert,
mountain and sea, has stood for thirty
centuries. Poland fell, Switzerland
stands; not because the Pole is less
patriotic, than the Swiss, but because
his land is everywhere open to invasion,
while the, Switzer is perched upon
heights where one may defy thousands.
If, instead of the Danube, the Turk
had been separated from the Russian
by three thousand miles of ocean. the
European sick man" might be enjoy
ing better health to-day. The impul-
sive Frenchman may not indeed be a
match for the cool, persistent Prussian
upon the field of battle but, during the
great struggle between these two had
unfortunate France England's bound
aries, when she saw the fate of war 90
ing against her she could have with
drawn within her own limits and
repealed the invader, and would not to-
day be weeping over the ruins of her
magnificent public works and over the
tombs of her hopes and her heroes
her beautiful empress an exile, the
Niobe of royalty, weeping for her hus-
band and her son and refusing to be
comforted because they are not. Eng
land, whose seas are an eternal ram
part, has not been crossed by hostile
army for centuries.
East and west our frontiers are, bet
ter than centuries can frame or
soldiers defend, oceans the best and
safest that nature can bestow. The
nation that proposes to assail us cannot.
as did Prussia to France in ~. and
Russia to Turkey in rs and ~, have
half million of men upon our soil in a
few days. He must, with long delay
and enormous cost, transport his army
across three thousand miles of ocean,
then land it-a task more difficult still,
then without a base of supplies main
tain it. In 1776 it was the ocean limits
that enabled our grandfathers to throw
off the British yoke; in 1872 it was the
ocean that gave our fathers victory; in
1862 it was the ocean that saved us
from the Intervention of France and
England. On the north and south
west our nominal limits are the ST..
Lawrence and the Rio Grande. but
practically we are masters of the con-
tinent, and manifest destiny points to a
nearing day when we shall be it's own
ers. Mexico is falling into our hands
as fast as its worthless people can cut
one another's Threats and depopulate
it for a better race. Canada will vet
be ours, not by conquest nor by pur-
chase but by the free will Of its peo-
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