The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-02
EXPANSION SENTIMENT.
The Shape 1t Takes in the Popular
Mind and the Reasons for 1t.
Beniamfn Kidd in Atlantic Monthlv.

Benjamin Kidd, in Atlantic Monthly.
1 have recently been travelling over a large
part of the United States, particularly in
the West. I have been as far West as the
Pacific coast, passing over two main lines
Of communication out one way and back
another, stopping at various places and liv-
ing among the people a good deal. On the
subject Of expansion I talked with the peo-
pie generally. 1t was impossible to avoid
the subject. 1 was struck by two great
bodies of opinion, as I might call them, on
the question Of expansion. One Of these
might describe as being a sort of unreas-
oning body of opinion; that is to say it
has not been reasoned out It takes the
shape in the popular mind of pronounced
and even intense feeling that in this mat
ter Of expansion the duty of the United
States is clear Ask the farmers and busi-
ness men In the West why the course which
they propose is the duty of America They
will give no direct or logical reason, as far
as could find out. But they are, neverthe-
less, perfectly decided about one thing, and
that is that this thing has got to be DONE
You ask, What thing?" and they reply
why, that America should keep a stiff
upper lip to the world; should hold that
which she has not sought, but which has
come to her; should keep what she has
got" She must, in short, in a favorite
phrase, be true to her own destiny"
The meaning of Washington's farewell
address, delivered when the United States
contained only about six million people,
surrounded on every side by hostile powers
and hostile natural conditions, appears to
be lost when the six million have grown to
seventy million and are already reckoning
the day when they will be two hundred mil
lion. The people whom Henry Adams de-
scribed as living at the beginning of the
nineteenth century lin an isolation like that
of the Jutes and Angles of the fifth CEN
fury" have tanned a continent have COW
cred it with vast network of the most
magnificent railroads in the world have
grown to be the largest and most homo
geneous nation on the face of the earth
with a great World-movement behind it,
ana certainly a great world-part before it,
II IS because the man in the Western States
To-Day, IN dim, instructive way, realizes
these things, because he has himself been
IN the midst of this development, and has
even peen factor N it, that he seems to
pc willing to take the risks which more
theoretical minds hesitate at. That was the
answer which l gave myself. To look closer
at the matter is only to have the i'm
force.
!, A leading factor in the future history of
tne world IS That 1t is the probable des-
time, to become the leading section of the
English-spealing world; nay, not only that,
put to become the leading World-poWer of
the next century Now if the United
States is going to be a great World-power
In the. next century, it would seem to be al
most impossible to conceive that it will be
able to escape the effect of it's connection
with what are really undergraduates and
these world-principes will involve very i'm
Ian OHld i.a
future. The first matter with which it will
undoubtedly be concerned is the trade Of
Within time which many of us will live
to see the American continent will be set
tied up; 1t is very nearly settled up already,
in the agricultural sense. The next era Of
expansion, which we are almost in the
midst of, Is the great era Of industrial ex-
pansion. manufacturing eXpansion-an era
or expansion which Will Undoubtedly bring
the United States into very important rea-
lions with the trade of the world The peo-
pie of the United States will be driven
to seek the widest possible outside market
for their Industrial productions; they must
be able to buy raw material in outside mar
kets and they will have behind them, as
clearly, a great history, for they will be
the leading representatives Of definite prin-
ciples in the development of the world
Now, let us see what this trade means. 1t
would seem that there can be little doubt
that the trade Of the world in the future
will be largely trade with the tropics.
endowed portion of the world. Under prop
er conditions of administration the possi-
biities Of production in the tropics are i'm
mensely greater than the possibilities OF
production in the temperate regions. Even
with the extremely unfavorable conditions
which at present prevail in the tropics our
civilization already rests to a large extent
on it's trade with the tropics.
If we exclude consideration of trade with
in the English-spealking regions the total
trade Of the United States with the tropics
in 1895 was $346 900 ,000, against $685. 600 900
with the remainder Of the world. This is a
very striking and pregnant fact when we
consider existing conditions. 1t must always
be kept in view, too that no nation can re-
main permanently indifferent to the condi-
tion of a country with which it has large
and vital trade relations.
AS to the logic of the situation, that is
matter solely for the American people. Yet
it is one of the deepest truths of philoso-
ply that the meaning of living things can
not be put into logical formulas The spirit
behind the Constitution of the United
States 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. One of the funda-
mental principles of government in the
United States is the assumption of the right
of every citizen to liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. The negro is q citizen of the
the Union he As forbidden to marry citi-
zen of a different color. The Indian is a
ward of the United States and not a citi-
zen, and the Chinaman is forbidden vote.
All this is illogical But it is not, there
fore, wrong; and the fact remains that the
spirit behind the American Constitution is
probably one of the healthiest forces in the
world
The intense feeling of the Western man
that there is meaning and a reason be-
hind a policy of expansion which cannot
be put into formulas-which is not even
necessary to pat into formulas-has more
in it Than appears on the surface;. it may
be nearer to the real meaning of things
than the most thoroughly reasoned argu-
ment We have not had a more philosophi-
cal historian in England than Professor
Seeley, certainly none who has understood
better the meaning of the principles behind
the expansion of the English-speaking
races. 1t was he, who writing about such
principles, delivered himself of this remark
able saying: I'm a truly living institution
the instinct of development is wiser than
the utterances of the wisest individual
man." That is the Western mans conclu-
sion put into the philosophy of the his
torian.
Reform of Local Government.
Brookville Qnd) American.