The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-09-10

yoIved in entangling alliances. and depart
from the precepts of the farewell ad-
dress; but Spain provoked continuous
trouble at our very doors for a hundre4
America have had revolutions without
number, Great Britain bounds our terri
tory for thousands of miles; and yet tor
a century We have avoided ~entangllng
provocatiOn existed.
The nations of Europe are to-day concen-
trating their energies on the shores ,S OF
Canadian railway to foster her Paclnc
trade. Russia is building her trans-Sl-
berian road for the same purpose. Ger
many and France want ports and trading
areas. OF all the nations struggling Tor
the trade of the Pacific, ours is the only
n naturally entitled to 1t. London and
Paris and Berlin and St Petersburg are
on the other side of the globe, but we
have a Pacific coast line of 4,OOOmiles. The
Philippines mean our ltimat supremacy
in the Pacific They are the eaSternmoSt
boundary of the markets of the east. On
one side Is China, on the other they look
across to our shores. Stretching LOO
miles from north to south, and 600 from
east to west, they form a natural barrier
between the east and the Pacific. Scat
tered over Co., 900 square miles OF the
would serve as an outpost from which to
lea.
Facing the Pacific and Indian oceans is
AANAS NAANhA A1iA AN
globe. Excluding North America, the
foreign of these people already
amounts to 81, 500. OO0. 900 a year. History
shows that whatever nation controls this
commerce. controls the trade of the world.
The stake at issue is s~tupendOus: Moth
ing less than an entire and undivided con-
troll of the Philippines would give us a
base adequate to our needs. Manila
bay, or even LuZon, for a naval and coal
ing station would be too perilouS and cost
ly a possession. with all the other is
! lands nDrfitlOna6 and E1rriSOQa1 nv Fill
ropean powers. Let England'S experience
with India and China be a warning. In
dia conquered and governed. has a mine
of wealth. China, exploited through trad
ing posts, is a burden and a constant per-
il. We want the Philippines, not Manila,
just as England to-day needs central Chi
ma, and not simply Hong Kong. We W
the Philippines by right of conquest, no
other nation does; We are in possession,
no other nation is; we can maintain sta
BILE government, Spain can not, and the
natives are incapable of self-rule. l can
conceive no reason to give away, or sell,
or lease, or abandon a single foot of terri
tory. 1t would be to lessen in that pro-
portion the greatest opportunity Provi-
dence ever placed before the nation. With
the Philippines, Ladrones. Samoa, and
! Hawaii our possessions will reach
across the Pacific, and its will
be ours pre-eminently; our territory will
bound 1t on two sides; our islands will dot
its surface; and with the ocean and its
trade in our possession, our political pre-
dominance will be assured among the
nations of the world.
Such is the broad plane of international
relations, upon which alone it is wise to
discuss an Anglo-American alliance.
A formal, a~rticulated alliance, in the
European acceptance of the term, and as
represented by It's dreibundS and kaiser
bunds, is an artificial bond, arbitrary in
character, and essentially military in pur-
pose. 1t implies cOnstraint, ~disregards ma
tiOnal conscience, eliminateSnational judg-
ment, and ~discOurages individuality of ma
tional action. If defensive only, England
would defend US, and we would defend
England, againSt the world, irrespective
of past relations, present friendships or
future interests. If offensive and de-
~fensive, each would be a party to the
QuarrelS of the other, without the exercise
of discretion or judgment. Such an alli-
ance would increase entanglementS; inter-
national impartiality would be impossible;
Zach nation would be fettered and ham,
advantages and equivalents would follow;
and friction and irritation would finally
degenerate into open hostility. 1t was
against such alliances that Washington
warned us, and his advice is sound to-
day. We want none of them. We need
no alliance offensive and defensive; nor
permanent and comprehensive treaties.
More powerful than formally articuSat-
ed alliances and more enduring than writ
ten treaties, is the bond of interest and
sentiment that uniteS the two branches
of the A~nglO-SaxOn race. Next to giving
US the Philippines. the greatest blessing
of our late war was to rediscover En-
Rlduu anu AIltTICd " tdCH OllCI. Inc
two peoples, now for the first time in a
| century, earnestly desire each others
friendship. MOI is this a sudden aspira-
ton born of emergencies in the Spanish
American war, but the result, as we have
seen, of economic, political and radical
forces which have been silently at work
for centuries. The great unwritten and
natural laws, the laws higher han human
institutions, are asserting their suprem-
acy and are drawing the peoples together
with an impulse that no human. power
cor Safa1V raGiGt That alliance &c aynn
now more than a theory, 1t is fast be-
coming an actually; anr woe betide any
man or party that disregards that fact
and gets in front of an memorable racial
movement ack by rs, 900, 900 enlightened
America contains to-day $500 600 of the
most ingenious, intelligent and active pro-
ducerS in the world. Production IS far eX-
ceeding consumption. The result is that
we must find additional markets or cur
tail our products. Hence our intense and
increasing interest in the worlds COM
merce, to which we gave scarcely a
thought when the country was young.
And wherever we go, in whatever direc-
ton we expand our trade, there We find
Great Britain already established, main
tanning open markets, forcing wide the
doors of commerce, and developing trade
interests identical with our own.
The area of England and her colonies
Is 16, 662. 013 square miles, more han four
and a half times the size of the United
States; and the population is 361 ,S25, 900.
These possessions, too, are constantly in
creasing. In the past twelve years En-
gland has acquired $500, 900 square miles,
more than twenty times the combined
area of the Philippines, Porto Rico and Ha-
wall; and all this territory is open to
America on practically the same terms
as to Great Britain. Even into remote
British possessions and markets, We are
pushing our commerce and discovering
untold possibilities. The African Cape
colony imports from British dominions,
aggregated last year IS. $40. 362: and near
" three times larger than the imports
from any other country where those from
the United States, of l3,l5l,U Il. oar total
exports to Africa in 1883 We're only $780,
coo: but for the fiscal year 1898, they We're
over 81, on, coo. And in China, where En-
gland Single-handed is opposing Russia,
we pass through the doors she forces
open, and in her own sphere of influence,
compete with her own merchants for
their local trade. Our amount
trade. Last year il was three times as
great as in 1895. four times as great as in
1880; 80 per cent. greater than that of Ger
many, and second only to that of En-
gland.
In fact in EngIand's own territory, as
well as in the ports held open by her
diplomacy and arms, we are her chief
rival. Our trade ranks second to her own,
and often aggregates more than the COM
bined continental imports. And that trade
Is rapidly increasing, even more rapidly
than the phenomenal increase in our gem
eral export trade, which last year was
twice that Of 1883, four times as much
as in 1869. and seven times tina of 1865.
And what the startling and incredible
aggregate result of his alliance of trade
interpStS2 In 1897 Our entire eyDOrtS ap-