The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-07
Our Nations Growing Sphere.

Considerable attention is being Justly
pail by thoughtful men to the recent
address of eX-Secretary Olney before a
Boston audience. i'm which he argued
that the time had come for the United
States to adjust its foreign policy upon
the basis of a realization of the fact
that II had outgrown the insularity of
the republics early days and reached,
almost unconsciously, the stature and
responsibility of first-class power
the greatest nation. in many respects,
in the family of nations. This prmacy
in enterprise, resources and moral in
fluence carries with it, he argued, duties
not only to ourselves but to civiliza-
ton, to that worldwide society of
which we form part, that cannot with
safety be neglected because at one
time. when the United States was
mere germ set down in a Wilderness.
George Washington advised his coun-
trymen to "avoid entangling alliances"
Mr.. Olney dwelt upon the freedom
with which. in a foreign crisis involv-
ing an array of forces along the divid-
ing line between right and wrong,-as,
for example, in the Armenian affair-we
| tender to the foreign champions of the
right our carefully wordnd moral sup
port" but draw back 81 alarm when
! it is suggested that moral support"
without substance behind it is mere
| emptiness and vexation of spirit. In
other words, the doctrine of isolation
has in his judgment been rendered OBJ
solete by the progress Of events. In the
days when it took months to COM
| municate with Europe and the inter-
| change of commerce and ideas was
scant, there was sense in the belief
| that our national responsibilities ended
| for the greater part at the shore line;
| but in these days of swift steamships
| and electric cables, when forces which
no power can resist are knitting the
peoples of civilization together into a
more patent and inter related brother
hocG, Mr.. Olney gave it as his opinion
| that the United States owed it to itself
and, most of all, to humanity in gen.
eral, to make that assertion of its
power for good which it's pre- emlnence
among the nations gives it the right,
| and imposes upon it the duty, to make.
Such a policy, he believed, necessar-
lily involves foreign alliances. This is
| the era of great combinations. There
| is possible a combination of nations
which, if made on broad lines of JUS
| tice and equity, would save civiliza-
ton and mold to high aims the destiny
Of the world. England and America,
| the two great forces of intelligent gov
| ernment, would, he predicted, yet con-
suit their common interests and re-
| unite in all the essentials of an inter-
national federation. To stand apart and
hostile would be to put to peril prn-
| Ciples and aspirations without which
| civilization could not exist. We have
| used our own words, but these are in
| substance the underlying thoughts of
! eX-Secretary Olneys address, and it is
| clear that they merit profound atten-
tion. That circumstances are bringing
the two branches of the Anglo Saxon
race together after a century Of more
| or less hostile disunion is plain to in
| teligent observation. That ii is a
| tendency fraught with the promise of
| large benefit to both is equally indis-
| putablc.
| The trend of American statesman
ship, despite anemic cavlers, is toward
a comprehension of these great por-
| tents. The delivery of Cuba and the
| annexation of Hawaii will set forward
this movement so that it cannot after
| ward be obscured.