The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1898-09-09
WRAT II has DONE.
The sosd thsWar With Spain Has Brought
1hs United States.

We have recovered our own
national feeling. Four months
ago We were q great mass of peo-
pie rather than a compact nation
or consciousof national strength
and unity. BY forgetting even
for this brief time our local diff
ferences we have welded our
selves into aconscious unity snch
as the Republic has not felt since
its early days.
This consclousnessis the keen
er because Of the increased re.
spect that other NATIONS have for
us. The United States was new.
er before understood in official
Europe, perhaps not even in of
fetal England. When the war
was begun most of the Continen-
al nations failed to conceal their
contempt of US; they now respect
us as they never dreamed they
should. Morris it only our naval
victories that have given the
world a somewhat new concep-
tion of the United States, Quite
as impressive has been the alb.
sence. of the old. time barbarities
of war and ofwarlike vindictive-
ness. To send home across the
ocean captured army. to parole
the officers of q captured. squad.
ron, to feed not only the victims
of Spunish misrule but the Span
ish themselves, have laid empha.
sis on other reasons for war than
the old reasons Of the punishment
OF enemies and the conquest of
tribute bearing territory. In hu-
mainly tothe enemy this war is
without parallel. Both the power
and the aims OF the Republic are
more clearly understood in Eu.
rope than a haltcentury Of peace
could have revealed them, and lin
mo SPIRIT Of boastfulness] we
Mi dd tae eFich a C6sfac
ter also:
Its to be hoped too, that we
have had some effect on the me-
diaeval diplomacy of Europe. We
have often been called blunt and
discourteous in our diplomacy
no doubtwith truth; for European
diplomacy Is a dilatory art, that
has always been as courteous as
it has usually been mendacious,
Ministers have seldom said what
they or their masters meant.
Now, If the dealings of civilized
governments with one another
are ever to advance beyond evas-
ion and cunning the old diploma
cy must change to republican di-
rectness and frankness. It need
not take on discourtesy in man
ner, but it must speak the truth
and keep faith. 1--we have even
in slight measure discredited the
old mendacious and dilatory
methods we have done something
toward fn1thering political civil
cation.
Nor will the impulse that as
serted itself in the war stop with
the war. The spirit Of the peo-
pie once having looked onward,
American enterprise will seek
new fields of conquest-not by
arms, but by trade and legitimate
adventure. Our navy has reveal
ed to ourselves not less than to
the rest of the world our rightful
place among the nations. Modern
transportation, which we have
done most to develop, has chang
= s
ed all International political con-
ditions. BY reason of it we are
already 'entangled' with other
peoples in ways that the fathers
could not forsee and that no
policy can prevent. The great
outward pressure thatall nations
feel is the pressure Of commerce
for new markets; and statesmen,
whether they know it or not,
minister to trade, and through
trade to ciyilization. With larger
and further reaching political du-
ties. too. which appeal to the
imagination rather than TO the
private greed of men, our public
| life will once more rise to the
level of craftsmanship, atlantic
Monthly.
Earmare ore coming more and