The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-20
IMPERIALISM. NOT ExPANsroNrsM.

/ The effort which Is now being made to
create the imprs szion that the possession
of The Philippines does not mean i'm
! perIalsm-that it means nothing moro
than such expansion as occurred when the
vast territory out of which was formed
the Southwestern and Northwestern states
was acquired, cannot be wholly sincere. 1t
is not proposed that the Philippines, if, in
fact, any of the other newly acquired pos
sessions. shan have a place in the union
such as that which The states referred to
have. ii is proposed TO hold them, for a
while at least. by means of the military,
and eventually to govern them as colonies.
Il is true that She suggestion has been
thrown out that as soon as practicable
they De admitted as states. It is doubtful
if any political party would dare to pro-
pose that they be taken into the union and
gwen representation in The Senate and
House AS states having all the rights
and privileges which the states now enjoy,
they would be source of endless trou-
bic.
They can be dealt with only as colonies.
fore the Conservative Club in London said
as much when he welcomed the United
States 70 pace among The colony hold
ing nations. Holding the Philippines as
colonies we shall have to greatly enlarge
our army and navy, and shan have to have
colonial governors and secretaries and an
army Of colonial civil Office holders. With
all The territory which we have acquired,
or shall have acquired when our negotia-
lions with Spain are completed we shall
have an empire of outlying possessions,
the government of which win require i'm
perial methods-methods which are wholly
unknown in our system of government
What nonsense, then, to say that what is
contemplated is not Imperialism, but only
expansion!
And what are we to gain from the Phil
ippines as a possession? 1t is said that we
shall gain new mathematics now very
much needed by our manufacturing indus
tries. But, is il true that we shall gain
greater markets than we now have? We
certainly shall not unless we extend over
our new possessions our tariff and naviga-
ton laws If we should do that what
would be the result? Would not other
nations shut us out of their possessions
by the same means? They certainly would.
and we should be worse off than we are
now, because we should be shut out of
markets we now have-markets far greater
than the Phiippines-and We should have
to bear the expense of governing those Is
lands, the revenues of which do not now.
and will not probably in a century, amount
to enough to anywhere near meet the de-
mands of civil government.
There would be some reason for desiring
the Philippines if there were a prospect
of their becoming peopled by the race
which has made the United States what
they are. There Is, however, no such pros
pect. Only such people as now inhabit
the Islands can thrive there, and owing
10 the climate their material and intel
lectual condition is not likely to be much
better than 1t is now. Even If we wanted
10 force Christianity and our civilization
on them it is against our constitution to
do so. By taking the Philippines. there
fore, we shall move a long way towards
imperialism without gaining anything.