The record-union., 1898-12-19

ernment Whlch do so much TO QepreSS
the English observer.
AS yet America probably has not
taken seriously in hand the treatment
Of these problems, and the results will
likely enough be striking when the
task is earnestly undertaken. The
United States is the highest, and yet
the youngest, of all political organ
isms in the world-an organism with
a promise and a potentiality behind it
Of which there has been no previous
parallel; but it has hardly had time
to attend to the problems, the slow
solution of which has taken hundreds
Of years in other countries. There
seems to be no inSurmountable reason
why there should not be as efficient
civil service in the United States as
there is in England. The principle
which has been followed in England
has been the keeping Of the perma
nent civil service, abroad even more
than at home, apart from the tradi-
tions and influences Of political parties.
In England the one constituent idea
which, through all outward forms, has
in late years been behind the institu-
tion of the higher Indian service on
existing lines is that, even where it
is equally open to natives with Euro
peans through competitive examina
ton, entrance to it shall be made
through a British university.
In the United States the university
system of education has already
reached a kind of development which
is far in advance of anything that we
have in England. There is a magnifi
cent recruiting ground existing from
which to build UP a civil service with
high traditions Of public duty II the
nation rises to the level of the occa-
sion, insists on going straight in this
matter from the beginning, there seem
to be all the possibilities of the very
best results. But it will be necessary
to pay salaries adequate to the posi-
tions and responsibilities of the Off
cials. In England there is a motto to
the effect that power must be paid" :"
If it is not paid by the State. it tends
to pay ITSELF directly or indirectly,
from other sources, and to serve the
interests, not Of the State, but of those
who pay it.
As to the question implied in the
third proposition 1 have no right to
reply. 1t is a matter exclusively for
the American people. 1 would point
control of colonies by the United States
is spoken of. One of the leading prin-
ciples that I have tried to enunciate
in my book on the control of the trop-
les is that such territories can never
be colonies; that the white man can
never be acclimatized in the tropics;
that such regions must continue to be
permanently peopled by their natural
bal l,i+ re. Io+ irh J,1t,-
of the civilized Power that undertakes
responsibility in relation thereto is to
see that they shall be governed, not
in the interest of the governing Pow
er, but as a trust for civilization.
AS to the logic of the situation, that
is also a matter solely for the Ameri-
can people. Yet it is one of the deep
est truths of philosophy that the mean
ing Of living things cannot be put
into logical formulas. The spirit behind
is probably one of the most vital and
healthy things in the world; and yet
under the Constitution itself, there are
already the most illogical results. But
it is not therefore wrong; and the fact
remains that the spirit behind the
American Constitution is probably one
The intense feeling of the Western
man that there is a meaning and a
reason behind a policy of expansion
which cannot be put into formulas
which it is not even necessary to put
into formulas-has more in it than ap-
pears on the surface; it may be nearer
to the real meaning Of things than the
most thoroughly reasoned argument.
We have not had a more philosoph-
ical historian in England than Profess
sor Seeley, certainly none who has un-
derstood better the meaning of the
principles behind expansion of
the English speaking races 1t
was he who, writing about
such principles, delivered himself
of this remarkable saying: In a truly
living institution the instinct of devel-
opment is wiser than the utterances
of the wisest individual man." That
is the Western mans conclucion put
into the philosophy of the HISTORIAN