The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-22
MhV We Need Good
FootholdS in Asia

| UUlllUluS III uSl0.
BY all odds the most notable address
delivered at the Saratoga conference OF
citizens called to discuss the foreign pol
icy of the United States was that by Hon.
T. S. Grosscup, of the federal judiciary,
Chicago. Judge Grosscup announced him.
self fearlesSly an eXpansionist without
apologies, and after answering in order
the various sentimental objections which
have been raised to the retention by the
United States of territory captured from
Spain, concluded with the unanswerablo
argument which is appended
| come now to what is. i'm my judgment,
the most interesting and important object
of our future foreign policy. | refer, of
course, to the INN ediate future of Asia.
1t is in that quarter that we will hnd
situation open to American venture. and
eventually a people and institutions ready
for a graft from the tree of AnGlo-SaXoa
civil liberty. outside of those countries
that are already European dependencies,
the population of Asia numbers already
4o0,000.O0O souls. They are, in many re-
speCts, not only civilized, but highly civil
lied. They are accustomed to govern
mcnt and social order. These they inherit
from more than one hundred generations.
tice the precepts of religion that ante
dates the New Tottament, and that
stands. in many features, upon an equal
footing of dignity and human usefulness.
They are the poSSeSSOrS of arts that we
have as yet only unsuccessfully attempt
ed to copy, and of literature that goes
back in unbroken current to a period he
yond our Greek and Latin classics. They
are neither crude nor barbarous, but, in
their own way. have culture and deval-
opment both orderly and complete. But,
with all this, they have, up to the pres
ont time, lived almost apart from man
kind The breaking of the seal upon their
ports is to us of Europe and America the
discovery of new continent. In the
nature of things great results must fol-
low. The discovery of unpeopled America
broke up the deepest fountains of Euro
pean life; the opening of Africa, peoplcd
only by savagCs, has stirred every corner
of European enterprise. But here in the
Far East. swinging inward. are doors
that will admit us to one-half of the de-
sirable territory and one-third of the pop
railroads, without manufactures, without
cities built on modern lines, without fields
cultivated by modern Implements. 1t
bids for every character of American en-
tcrprse. 1t lies under the temperate zone,
the only strip of our globe that insures
increasing Vieo, to men yet to come.
Looked at from every material point OF
view, the invitation rendered is one that
no onterprising people can afford to de-
cline.
The breakup in the current OF Asiatic
life Is at hand. 1t will not. in my judg-
ment. be first seen in any change of fe-
ligion, nor in any revolution of civil poll
ity. The instincts of the former are too
deep to melt away, perhaps in a century.
and the habits of social order too strong
ly imbedded to break up at the first in
novation from the outside world. The
transformation will flow in here, as it has
elsewhere, on the rapidly rising tide of
its foreign commerce. 1t seems to be a
law of civilization that it lays siege TO
men through their physical wants. it
goes from the exterior inwardly. 1t
reaches the citadel of polity and religion
only after tho old modes of living have
capitulated. The people of China are
already begnnilg to compare their own
modes of life with ours, and to reacn OUT
for some of the physical aids that we are
ready to offer. In time will come
change of clothing, of houses, and meth
DDS of transportation, all that constitute
the material side of human life. Ships
laden with these from the western world
are entering their ports. Railroads will
soon carry them in all directions through
out the interior. Telegraphs will every
where quicken their intelligence as 1t
quickens the means of exchanging
thought. Rice, to some extent, will give
way to bread, sandals to leather foot
wear, and the ancient dress to modern
clothing. With arms of steel and vision
searchful as the lightning. civ ilization
will eventually gather these people I'm,
and feed and clotEe and build them anew,
"a M bpN pn 1nn 1lN
of the realities, They stand already
proven in the reports of our Consuls in
the statistics of our shipping, and in the
observation of every intelligent traveller.
That the breakup i'm Asia is at hand is
known to every foreign minister of Ed
rope, and to every observer who keeps
his finger upon the commercial pulse.
That 1t will come i'm leaps and bounds is
proven by the recent history Of the neigh
boring empire OF japan. Indeed, there
can be no more interesting study than n
comparison of these two peoples. They
are descended, 1t Is believed, from the
same original stock, and have been
moulded through centuries substantially
in like civil polity and religion. What
has happened i'm the case Of the one will:
in all likelihood, under similar conditions
happen again in the case of the other,
C
need recall but little of the recent
HlSlbIN VI lilt JdpdIltSt. l.Illl 1901, as is
well known, they refused to trade with
the outside world. Early attempts in
that direction upon the part of the Dutch,
Portuguese and English proved either in
effectual or very limited in amount. In
fact, for a long time prior to 1854 foreign
trade was entirely forbidden. Then
came the expedition of Commodore Perry
and the opening up of their bronchial
ports. The transformation, slow at first,
grew i'm geometrical ratio From a her
NIT people they have in fifty years re-
come world people. Little of early JAPAN
remains today and travellers tell us that
In "A few years the remaining little will be
gone, On the physical sides OF life they
are already mi-Caucasian. The Chinese
people, judging from the commercial sta
tstics, have now advanced to about the
state of the Japanese twenty years after
the opening of their ports. 1t Is interest
ing to note the advance in japanese trade
during the past twenty years. Their
trade with the outside world In 1875 did