The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-30
EUROPE'S GUILT AND OURS.

c ENATOR CULLOM and others are quoted
as saying that events the Chinese coast
making votes for the annexation OF Ha-
wall Why should that be the effect of land grabbing
in Asia? II an honest thief rob somebody,
does that make it necessary ior him to go and do
likewise?
We all profess aversion to the policy be-
ing exploited in the East by four European powers
Japan revealed the defenseless condition of China,
the lack of martial spirit among her people and
the weakness of the government in external admin
stration This information is being taken advant-
age of by Europe to push policy of territorial ag
grandizement. China has had greater than
the Black Flag rebellion for many generations Her
people are trained in the art of offense and de-
Tense The country has not even roads. Horses are
little used. The population is congested along the
rivers, which furnish the most primitive means Of
transportation and intercourse. 1t is evident that
Europe has only to agree where to cut and carve
and the vivsection will take place
But viewed from the standpoint of traditional Am
erican policy the whole proceeding is outrage
The world has been preached to for nearly twenty
centuries about the blessings of peace, and of the
time when nation shall not lift the sword against
nation, neither shall they learn any But
it has to pass that people who have ceased
to learn until its dark spirit had fled from them
are to be overrun by the sword because they can
not defend themselves. And we have lost right
Of protest. The amiabe character oY the Hawaiians
their indspostiOn to fight the with which Dole
stole their government under the guns OF war
ship, have all been quoted as good reasons why we
should rob them of their sovereignty and autonomy.
With this proposition pending in our Congress, the
nations which rob the defenseess in the uttermost
parts of the earth laugh at petty larceny by
pocrisy.
An American should love his country and serve
the republic by maintaining its honor as stainless
star. Our honor is furnished by the Hawaiian
job and moral power is departed from u.s. if
that job be accomplished
What thoughtful American desires to see his coun-
try shine in such company now prowls around
the Chinese coast, fearful only that some one may
get undue share of the helpless victim which
covers and trembes before them?
The guilt of that dark crime which is in process
the other side of the Pacific is at our door
There is every for believing that the fleets Of
Europe would never have assembled in those seas
with bell against China, to divide her with
the sword, had we not proposed meaner larceny
in Hawaii.
The moral obliquity of those who argue that the
joint crime of Europe makes imperative a similar
crime part is something astounding II we
right in Selling Hawaii because its people are
weak, and the marvellous Morgan insists, because
1T is not policy to consult the natives of a
country we want to annex" then Russia GERMANY
England and France right in Selling the country
from the Isthmus of Kraw to the Korean Peninsula
That expression OF the Senator is an exact state
ment Of the policy now in operation at ST Peters
burg, Berlin, Versailles and London. The Call
when it first uttered characterized it as breath
ing the spirit of tyranny and oppression and its
ready adoption by the war lords of Europe ustifes
our view OF it.