The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-25
BEARING EARLY FRUIT.

pearance we have a sufficient Vindi-
cation of those wise and patriotic men
who, from the earliest days of the re-
public, have warned it against entang-
ling alliances and complications with
foreign powers. Once let so much as
into the whirling machinery of interna-
tiOnal jealouSies and chickering's, and
we must lose the advantage which, dur
ing our existence, has been more to us
than armies and navies or coast de-
lenses namely. our political isolation.
The administration has reached out
greedy hand to grasp at a worthless
group Of islands in the Pacific. In
stantly there comes a protest from
Japan, which, smooth it over as they
may at Washington, by plying refer
ence to Japan as an inferior power IS
! little short of a direct menace of war.
At the same time the matter is made a
subject of inquiry in the British house of
! commons: and there is not a power in
Europe, or in Asia, for that matter,
worth reckoning with, which does not
feel that this is the first step of new
departure that will require the United
States to- be regarded as an ambitious
and dangerous enemy, instead of the
great peace-loving and peace-maintain-
ing nation of the world.
The remonstrance Of Japan is not at
all to be wondered at. Let us turn the
case about and look at it from another
| direction. Suppose that there were in
the Sandwich islands $4,000 American
citizens enjoying certain rights and
privileges under treaty relations be-
tween that government and this. Sup
pose that 1900 Japanese had, under the
protection of a Japanese man-of-War
and with the assistance of the Japanese
representative at Honolulu, taken
charge of the government of the island
and ousted all others from their places.
Suppose that, relying upon this, the
government of Japan had announced.
publicly, its intention to annex the
islands and incorporate them with the
empire; assimiIating their laws with its
own in such fashion that the rights of
American citizens resident there would
be curtailed, and future immigration
from the United States to Hawaii be
absolutely prohibited Would our own
government make no protest2 Would
it sit down tamely under an appropria
ton, by minority, Of complete au-
| thority over people outnumbering it by
| twenty to one? There is reason on
the side Of Japan's protest, but the
great Importance of it lies in it's indi-
cation of the price that we will have
to pay for the execution of this most
obnoxious and un-American scheme
To annex Hawaii is to depart from
all the traditions of our national eX-
istence in order to reach two results;
first, the securing of what must be-
come the very cesspool of all American
politics, spot over which it is impos-
sible to hope that the American politi-
| cal idea can ever prevail; and, second,
to change permanently the relations
between ourselves and all the other
leading powers Of the earth This, to
us, is the all-important point. We fear
| no one. We have no need to fear. Yet
is it worth while to place ourselves in a
position where we will be regarded
with distrust, suspicion, and, in many
cases, openly avowed enmity for the
sake Of annexing territory that can
| not, even physically speaking, much
less morally or politically, be brought
within the American system?
This is what the proposition means in
its larger bearings, which seem to US
to have been little considered All the
world takes it, and has a right to take
it, as practical abandonment of our
policy of non-interference abroad. and
the beginning Of schemes of colo
nization and conquest that will in
volve us inevitably and hopelessly
in the European system Do the
American people believe in this? Do
they want to pay the price, which it is
already demonstrated that they must
pay, for the contamination Of a plot
whose interior construction has not vet
been fully revealed, but which it is safe
| to say rests upon self-interest and
| greed?