The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-05-20
DURATION or THE WAR.

In Kentucky, or in South Carolina. it is
very commonplace process to open up
small war by calling another man liar,
and then accepting bullet straight into
the solar plexus. But the ending of that
little emeute is quite another thing. Not
until the brothers, cousins and uncles of
the combatants have taken warm hand
in the general order of determination and
no one remains to shoot or be shot at does
the opaline- winged dove of peace flap her
sublime feathers above half dozen con-
tented households.
The arms of the nation are destined in
this war for the eliminating triumph Of
the greatest of the centuries, and already
Old Glory fiutters in pride and grandeur
eight thousand miles away from the
home of its freedom-inspired baptism
And the impulsive, redoubtable, irrepres-
sible American. accustomed to tunnel
ing or leaping insurmountable submits,
so to speak, and to doing either with
inconceivable celebrity, is now very nat
urally contemplating the swift dismay of
Spain and prompt conclusion of the
war. OF the first of these there can be
no question. The crushing defeat of the
Spaniard is foregone, and his struggle
may be brief; but, in our opinion, that,
while apparently terminating the present
quarrel, will suffice only as the opening
of complicated relationships between the
United States and the international bro
theirs. cousins and uncles Of our discom-
! flied foe; and these, leading us blindfold
into mazes of unfamiliar diplomacy, are
quite apt to embroil us in far more ex-
tensive and prolonged contest.
For the United States, in their conclu-
sions with Spain, are but conforming to
policy of national expansion imposed
by manifest destiny; and that pow
erful civilization like this should at last
assert its weight and influence in the af-
fairs of the whole world need brighten
or astonish none except the inert few who
may have supposed The great end of this
country was to wallow in walled obesity
and wind up with fatty degeneration.
For five tormenting years of business
stagnation the country has been vainly
coming the skies for an astrological key
to its causes. One of these has been that
under several sorts of national delusion
we have taken our fate to mean that we
were to dwell forever within ourselves. a
cooped-up. compact nationality, having
no concern with the affairs of foreign
States. A consequence of this policy has
been not unlike that which befel certain
small groceryman who fancied, because
his large family were fattening on his
stock, that his business was prospecting!
In this country, when we have gotten on
the market only as much business as the
fgurative home family can digest. we
chuck gaunt and toppling Prosperity in
the fifth rib, rub our hands, put up the
shutters, and shout satisfaction. After
the war we'll find that s'there are others,
and that thousand million dollars or SO
of additional goods thrown into the new
colonies, into China, Japan, the Mediter-
ranean and elsewhere annually, will have
avery exhilarating reaction on American
trade and American progress at home.
But all this presupposes the retention OF
our acquired territory everywhere. Hence
the Philippines, Porto Rico, the Canary
Islands, and incidentally Cuba and Ha-
wall, should all of them become the fruits
of the action or policy of the present step
for American national expansion, and,
supplemented by an enormous navy, they
should be held by us, though it should, as
it may. involve US in protracted war with
other European powers to establish our
perpetual title to them. Meanwhile, the
attendant controvo--~;as and contentious
inseparable from interna. 'anal conflicts
are certain to mark the pro. ~ess of this;
and it is gratifying to observ that the
authorities conducting our naval opera
tons are thus far doing SO from wholly
American standpoint and without refer
ence to the views or wishes of European
warriors, diplomats or busybodies.
MORRISTOWN'S NOBLE WOMEN.