The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10


 civilization Is rather to be encouraged than otherwise and that it is the natural part of this people not only to move with 1t, but to set the pace. We have resources of intelligence, inven- tion, letters. patriotism of which the Roman in the zenith of his barbarlc splendor never dreamed. He knew nothing of telegraphy, the warship, the 13-inch gun. Because he had no Frank lin and no Edison do we err that we employ electricity for power and light? What the Romans may have done mat ters nothing to us. We live in the pres ent and the future. When 'Publicola" asks: Are American institutions to be permanently changed? Do the new conditions of modern times demand political revolution?" I answer freely and gladly: They are and they do. The babe outgrows his swaddling clothes. The nation born in the stress of con- f1ict, nurtured tenderly, becomes great and strong. For it to stand till Is to perish. For it to attempt to stand still is to be unutterably selfish and invite destruction. Never mind Rome. It passed away because of the process of evolution by which all things pass. To ask if new conditions demand a pOliti- cal revolution is merely to ask if any new condition requires recognition of the fact that 1t is not like the old. A man in the Arctic wears furs. Trans port him to the tropics and he strips the furs off or suffers discomfort He is in new conditions Our forefathers devised laws of profound and impress sive character, their basis in Justice. But could they have thought out the precise development of the centuries and made laws to fit them they would have been more than statesmen and patriots They would have been more than human. In case of the extension of our holdings to embrace the present insular possessions of Spain we can provide for down-trCF 'en people an en- frightened government, give them free dom, schools, manual training, uplift them morally We can enlarge our trade, our influence, and take among the nations of the earth the place to which by reason of numbers, strength and harmonious growth we have the right. By declining to accept this place we check not alone our own progress, but that of millions in whose welfare we ought to feel an interest "Publ- cola" is fearful that a large army would be necessary. I would rather maintain that than an army of tramps, a legion of the unemployed. He is afraid also that we would have to build the second greatest navy in the world. We ought to do this and begin now. But the whole subject is too vast to be more than mentioned here. I hope in a general way to have made my mean ing clear. Hawaii is ours I think that we will take the Philippines, Cuba, Porto Rico and the other Spanish is lands. and the Stars and Stripes once raised above them ought to remain on high. We have lived to ourselves and for ourselves. It has been the policy of wisdom. Let us not pursue it when it has become the policy of folly. I have only the privilege of writing here as an individual American, but declare the belief that the necessity for entering upon a colonial career is now as press ing as was once the necessity for re- training from 1t.
 Not long ago the Boston Transcript brought to the defense of a shipping company depending on Americans for support, which had sold vessels to Spain knowing them to be for use against this country, all the weight of it's edi- torial responsibility. It really argued well, considering the fact that it had no case, and seemed to convince itself that the act of the company had been