The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-16

tie war will make ef The United States
a great naval power. In other quar- tiers
ltlss pointed out that the ultimate effect
i OF the struggle must be revo ution of
our revenue system. To an extent i'm
pied IN the other two propositions, the
war, 1t lsssaid, will change our tradi-
t1onal attitude as member of the COM
mun1ty- Of nations. The doctrine of
political Isolation, LAID down by the
fathers of the republic, is receiving =
severe blow and the steadiest of hands
will be required to maintain it for the
few years succeeding the close of this
war; Perhaps instead of ascribing re-
suits so vast to the little war, they
should have been set down as tenden-
cies of the times, which would have
worked their way out in any event.
had there been war or not; however
| that may be, the fact remains that the
war is seemingly working out amazing
results.
NAVAL RESOURCES.
The chief question Of a navy has al
ways been whether we wanted to pay
for one or not. Nobody has had any
doubt CT the alb lily of the United States
TO bulld, mainta and man as large
naval establishment as they might
elect to have: but squadrons are ex-
pens1ve, and large element in con-
| gress has always objected to great out
lays in that direction. The result has
been that in spite of the Chandler
Whitney revival we began this war as
about the sixth naval power in the
world, Great Britain, France, Germany.
Russia and Italy outranking us. The
fear that passed over the country at
the prospect of the coming of the Span
ish torpedo boat flotilla and the gen.
eral alarm lest the old, decaying
monarchy were so near our own naval
! strength as to give us considerable
trouble, will henceforth be used as an
argument, and of some effectiveness,
for a steady increase In our naval es-
Enlistment What would have hap
pened, it is frequently asked, If we
had suddenly got into trouble with
some f1rst-class power like Russia or
Germany, with our populous seacoast
cities comparatively unprotected?
There are, Of course, two sides to this
theory, wars make great navies, and
great navies make wars. Had we own
ed no navy we should have had to keep
out of this Spanish war. But If the
present temper Of congress is any test
of the future policy Of the nation, it
seems to be predetermined that we
ond only to England, and become one
Of the great fighting powers of the
world. This war Is everywhere cited as
emphasizing the need of certain things
we haven't gothic Hawaiian cable,
the Nicaraguan canal, coaling stations
all over the world, and the other con-
ccmitants Of strategy and strife These
! things they tell us we must have be-
fore another war breaks out, and the
momentum of present sentiment is
liable to go some distance in bringing
results to pass.
| FUTURE TAXATION PROBLEMS.
! Representative e. ]. Hill, Of Connec-
| ticut, who has given much attention to
| fiscal problems, remarked the other
| day, when the revenue bill was under
| consideration in the house, that what
ever of Its features worked out best
would become a permanent part Of our
! system-that we should never go back
! to the small internal revenue taxes
which the Dingley tariff act Of 1897 left
us. This observation is strictly in line
with general expectation. AS Senator
| Aldrich pointed out when the Dingley
bill was under discussion a year ago,
the time would come when the United
| States would have to look more to other
sources, and less to protective duties,
for raising revenue. The revenue lin
its of the protective system had about
been reached, and henceforth it would
decrease in the natural course Of
events. The increasing density of our
population would tend to eQuatize the
conditions of labor here and abroad,
and the margin between domestic and
foreign cost Of production would grad
/ ually grow narrower, with the result
| that more goods would be made at
home and the tariff cease to yield rev.
enue. What Senator Aldrich predicted
has the sooner come to pass by reason
| Of this war. Our needs Of revenue are
| greater. and will coatinla To he roo.