The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-23
President of Johns Hopkins Dis
cusses New Responsibilities.
OPPOSED TO EXPANSION
BUT SERIOUS QUESTIONS NOW
CONFRONT THE GOVERNMENT.
Address Delivered at the Princeton
Anniversary = President Gilman
breads the Coming Conflict, But
Is Confident the Americans viii
Succeed.

Princeton, n. J., Oct. 22.-The Prince
ton university celebrated its 152d an
niversary today with appropriate cere-
monies. An imposing academy pro-
cession, in which appeared ex-Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland, a. Taylor
Payne, William Milligan Sloane and
other men OF national reputation passed
from the library to Alexander hall,
where the exercises We're held. rhe
ceremonies were very simple, and af-
ter a brief review Of the events which
afford the occasion and a reference to
the proposed graduate school. President
Patton introduced as the guest of honor
President Gilman Of Johns Hopkins
university, who addressed the assem-
bly, on the theme, Books and Poll
tics He said:
i am not an imperialist, an eXpan-
sionist, nor a lingo. l belong 20 a
class of citizens who dread revolution.
trust experience and are established by
inheritance. training and reflection in
the belief that the freedom of this
country from foreign entanglements
has secured it peace and plenty, and is
the basis of its hope and faith. 1 feel
now as / felt in June. that it is safer
to walk in the footsteps Of the fathers
than to enter upon the emblazoned
paths of the forest, which lead, we
know not where.
SERIOUS PROBLEM PRESENTED.
Nevertheless, is it not apparent that
the events of 1898, following in quick
succession, like the bombs of the tur-
rets of a battieship, have changed the
outlook? If public opinion, manifest
by the newspapers, expressed by
speeches, pamphlets and resolutions,
and presently to be formulated by con-
gress, demands that our acquisitions
remain our possessions, the Americans
have reached the most serious difficulty
in government that has arisen since the
constitution OF the United States was
adOpted-reconstruct perhaps eX-
cepted, though of this 1 am not sure.
such a state of affairs was not fore
told by Optomistic or pessimistic proph-
ecy. The political results as distin-
guished from the military and naval
have been adverse to the wishes, argti-
ments and anticipations OF conserva-
tive men. But here we are, in circum-
stances Unforeseen when the conSti-
tuition was adopted, when the farewell
address was written, CT when the Mon
roe doctrine was announced, or even
in May. 1898, at the declaration of war
with Spain.
Whatever We may think of the an
neXation of Hawaii, or of the value of
Puerto Rico, or Of the wisdom of the
recent war or of its necessity, or OF
the terms of the protocol, or of the per
pleyities in which this country is in
volVed, here we are, face to face with
new problems. new responsibilities
new opportunities. They are not ghosts
and sDecters which viii vanish as we
approach thenl-they are giants, tough
and grim. armed with clubs and full of
deceit-with which we shall have many
a rude encounter before we prevail.
WAR CAME AS 4 FLASH
For this state Of affairs we are
wholly unprepared. If it is true, as a
member of the cabinet has said, that
war came like a flash of lightning out
of clear sky. and as the president af-
terward affirmed that the storm broke
so suddenly that 1t was here almost be-
fore we realized it, it is equally true
that the nation is not ready for the
new problems of civil government upon
which il is entering. Reduce these prob
lens to their lawest terms. Nearby
Cuba, freed from the sovereignty Of
Spain, is ours for the moment by con-
quest, and yet it is not ready for self |
nor viii it be for a long /
time to come. Puerto Rico and other /
Spanish islands are ours, by terms Of |
the protocol, and are equally unDre- |
pared for republican suffrage. In the 1
Pacific Hawaii is ours by annexation:
an island in the Ladrones is guaran- /
teed to us by the protocol; we are in |
possession of the harbor, bay and city |
Of Manila, and with Germany and /
England we are joint protectors of