The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-17

western extremities of the Republic,
lies the archipelago known on the map
as the Sandwich Islands. set like
cluster of gems in the inmeasurabl
azure cf the Pacific, where 100 years
ago Capt. Cook found half million na-
tives living in a state of feudal COM
munism, without laws or morals or in
dHstry, their simple wants supplied by
nature beneath a sky that was cloud
less, and in year that had no win
ter.
Civilization bequeaths to weaker
races only its vices. The Indian, the
negro, the Chinese, the Hindoo. the
PolyneSian are illustrations of the
blessings which Christian nations be-
stow upon their victims. Since 1T9S. the
date of discovery, the native population
under the benign influence of alcohol
and disease. has constantly declined till
but a fraction remains In the % years
following the landing of Cook fully one
half of the original inhabitants perished
from these causes, and the diminution
has since steadily progressed. Their
final extinction or absorption is the de-
cree of destiny.
The fertile lands, the harbors, the po-
litical functions meanwhile have been
acquired by foreigners, who control the
commerce, the agriculture and the gov
ernment of the islands and desire to
make them a colony, territory or
dependency of the United States.
Treaties to this end have repeatedly
been considered, and the latest is now
pending for ratification by the senate.
It must be conceded that our policy
hitherto has been strictly continental
from the beginning.
But at last we have abolished the
frOntieS and Subjugated the desert the
public domain is exhausted. The Strug-
gle for life is becoming more intense.
Competition is more bitter and siren
uous. Society is now in a hand to hand
contest with the destructive forces
which civilization itself has engendered
r &c Wa 0rA nnTPTiT1er
o new epoch in our history. If we do
not prey upon others, we may prey up
on ourselves.
We have come in the United States to
the fork of the roads. Our industrial
competitors and rivals have entered
upon a career of stupendous rapac1ty.
In Asia, Africa, China, the Philippines,
in every abode of inferior races, they
are engaged in schemes Of plunder and
depredation as savage and brutal as
the raVages of the Huns or the descent
Of the Goths and Vandals.
The fundamental question before the
American people therefore is not so
much whether it will be to our advan-
tage to annex, as whether it viii be to
our disadvantage to have England an
mex them.
It needs no soothsayer to predict that
the next theater of industrial and com
mercial activity will be in the eastern
Hemisphere. The unprecedented ener-
sry of Japan, the extension OF the RuS-
sian railroad system through the ASl-
attic continent, and the subsequent de-
velopment of it's navy and commercial
marine, the gold exodus to the valley
of the Yukon, the enormous values OF
the forests and fisheries OF the norIh-
west and the new highways ana cen
ters of exchange that will result from
the completion of the iSthrnus canal, ana
the practical partition of China With
its four hundred million inhabitants,
l1nerringly point to revolution .l .tltt
viii make the 10th century the most
-, o1s of kind.
Tn this great theater of action As1Wall
is a local point of transcendent import
anca Tt is the key of the Pacific Ihat
+be treatv of annexation is opposed 10
80 r9difi0ns of the Republic can be
conceded But we are opening new
volume in the worlds history ne ne
westward path of empire has made Ihe
ciYcllit of the globe, and 1t must reIrace
i+s footsteps or go on to the goal
whence it started. New times demand
new manners and new men. Tradltlon
was opposed to the purchase OF LOUIS
lana by Jefferson from Napoleon; 70
the ACQUISITION Of Florida; TO the AIas-
kan treaty with Russia. There was no
warrant in thet constitution ior eltHGi,
Int they were sactiOned by puDIlc
oDiniOn Alaska is not contiguous TO
our territory, and the Klondike is Prac-
ticallV more remote tnan donOlulu.
With cable communication WhIcn WIN
soon he esta blished. the question of dis
tance will disappear, the ocean VIII Oe
no barrier, and time Will be anhlhlIa-
ted. 7 e
Hawaii are not in favor of annexation,
and that the existing government IS d
1Isurptionis not borne out by any facts
that have appeared since Mr. CleVeo t,eo
lands Iudicrous effort to lower the
American flag and restore the mon
archy by diplomatic methods that
would have disgraced a rural pet1fog-
ser in an attempt to secure nellOio Us
correspondents in a divorce case.
OF course, if we take HaWan,We must
keen it. That goes without saying II
it is attacked, We must defend II. By
fleets and fortresses we must make 1t
imnreena.ble. All this is implied. If
we get down from the pedestal on
which the Professor Bryce has placed
us, and enter into competition for mar
kets for our surplus products and areas
for our surplus population, we must go
armed Bibles and missionaries and
rnissals and treaties of arbitration VIII
not do We talk Of Christian c1Vlllza-
tiOn. but when the Venezuela boundary
question was up a few months ago the
passion of the people broke out INTO a
hoarse roar for blood General Schurz
points out the danger in Harper
Weekly. His experience as a soldier
gives his opinion great value. He new
er believed i'll taking any risks. he re-
CARDS our position now as safe ana
shrinkS from exposure lie IS couT-
areous enough, however, to admit that
hawaii can be defended if the people
are willing to pay the bills. ThiS IS the
opinion also of the retail grocer ana
the proprietor of the SO cent bargain
counter.
Speaker Reed says we can wait. So
we can. The trouble is that the other
nations will not wait. The speaker mas
not in other emergencies been wanting
in a aggression Patience is one of the
cardinal virtues, but the speaker has
not been a companion of Job hitherto.
His great fame has derived none Of Its
Iustre from patience. He says there IS
of n