The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-19

East are sunk in the degrading abyss
of commercialism. They view every
thing in relation to it's effect upon the
price of stocks and bonds. They care
for nothing but the contents OF their
strong boxes. They are Indifferent to
the Hawaiian question OF opposed to
annexation because they fear that 1t
would lead to foreign complications
that might interfere with traffic and
reduce the value Of securities. Scarcely
is this period rounded out when he
begins new exordium, the purport OF
which is the immense value OF the
Hawaiian islands for commercial and
trade purposes and the future OF our
own people as a trading nation. We
will soon, he says, produce more goods
than we can consume. We must make
our fight for control Of the markets OF
the world and we must force our prod
ucts upon other peoples, as England
and Germany do, whether they want
to take them or not. Among
the delicate crystals Of his soul
there appears to have lodged also
some particles of the SCOT Of CONNER
cialism. He does not appear to SO
much as recognize the absurdity Of
the spectacle that he makes OF him
self by declaring within five minutes
against the sordid commercial idea and
affirming that that very idea, being
the pole star Of our future policy, de-
mands the annexation of Hawaii.
The absence Of the moral idea,
instanced by conflicts Of argu-
ment and fact, Is the salient
feature Of the whole Hawaiian
debate No man in favor of
annexation dares to admit the princi-
pie of right and wrong to bare stand
ing room No one Of them can urge
or defend it on moral grounds. The
only possible arguments in its favor
are derived from eXpediency. Every
plea is based upon the supposltion that
we want Hawaii; that we need Ha-
wall and that, therefore, we must take
1t. It is a strange and melancholy
sight when a large number Of Ameri-
Gin citizens are found to follow or
consent in national affairs to such
negation of what has been found,
through all human experience, to be
the fundamental law of the universe.
If right and wrong are mere figures
of speech, and the ideas which they
subsume have no bearing upon the
practical human conduct, then all So
ciety should be disorganized and a
league of bandftti constitute the ideal
state.
The state Of Minnesota has public
institutions-one of them at Saltwater
erected and set apart for the enter
tainment of persons who in private
life have acted upon precisely the prin-
ciple set forth as the sole reason why
we should annex Hawaii. They all of
them wanted certain things, and
therefore proceeded in a perfectly
naive and natural way to take them.
Society not only protested. but shut
up these enterprising annexationists,
and is at present engaged in an in
vestigation to discover whether they
are entitled to the treatment Of ordi-
nary human beings, or whether it is
proper for those in charge. of them to
hammer them to death with impunity.
At the same moment a large portion Of
the public press and Of public men
are engaged diligently in asserting
that the maxim of the burglar, the
highwayman and the sneak thief is
proper rule Of conduct for the nation;
and that, if it can be shown that we
want Hawaii and have the power to
grab it, the question is settled. 1t
seems to us that the first duty Of the
lingo to annexation is to fix its proper
place in the system of penology that
has been accepted by all civilized COM
munities