The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-07-15
Didn't Know 1t Was a Law.

Didn't Know 1t Was Law.
The right of petition remains un-
abridged. The Michigan senators and
representatives, even on the eve OF con-
gressional adjournment, received petit
tions from all over the state on all
sorts OF topics. Many petitions favored
the adoption Of a bankruptcy law, after
that law had been adopted.
In this glow of victory has 1t &C.
Cured to our statesmen that we owe
our triumphs to the forbearance OF the
great powers? Had any one of them
raised finger we could not have de-
stroyed the Manila fleet nor main
tanned the Antilles blockade. Is 1t in
keeping with our national self respect
that we should have been rotting in
the canker Of generation Of unreadi-
ness, ignoring every suggestion of pru-
dence, wasting our substance, and yet
expecting in a sudden flash OF war to
conquer even Spain. The sardonic irony
of those war speeches in congress
ready to whip all creation in fifteen
minutes!" We now see where we would
have been had the historical counsels
of Cleveland prevailed in the Vene-
zuelan business and we had plunged In
to war which was prevented by the
magnanimity Of Lord Salisbury.
Looming Up of the Philippines.
We know that events go hand inland
with debate. Take these Philippines
for instance. Did any one want them
three months ago? They were as un-
known as Crimea to our English friends
In 1854. They gave us hemp which we
did not especially need. and tobacco
which We did not smoke. The Dewey
victory was a transformation. The
Philippines with us, as Crimea to the
English, became an issue. No one ex-
pected that Dewey won take the Phil
ippines, that the over-ripened pear
would fall at the first shake of the tree.
The pear fell. We were helpless as to
it's possession. Nearly two months
since Dewey delivered home the fatal
blow to Spanish power in the Pacific,
and yet we have been unable to follow
up the victory. The unexpected, per-
haps the undesired, found us unpre-
pared. Other nations flock towards
Manila. Germany already has a fleet
that might bid us go no further and
the best to be hoped for is that our ad-
vance guard will enable Dewey to hold
his own.
All this is part of the fruits Of the
policy of paralysis so long paramount,
and which still meets with the advo-
cacy Of eminent and venerable states
men. The policy Of paralysis! What
other name can we give 1t? Progress
must be averted. The hand of the
clock must be turned back. We must
stand still. We must cast down what
has been won by the vigor and valor
of our people, The civilization which
changed California from a struggling
group of Catholic missions into q vas
cular empire; which converted the In
dian hunting grounds and prairie lands
Of the Upper Mississippi into Illinois,
Wisconsin and Missouri; which trans
formed the wastes Of Nebraska and
Kansas into wheat fields and gardens
of roses; which dared the perils Of de-
wasting war, to do what 1t would with
its own, must be averted because there
are some leprosy cases In Honolulu.
Contingencies if Paralysis Prevails.
If the policy of paralysis Is to pre-
vail, If the republic is to stand still,
IL we are nameless and dare not keep
our own, If we are to have an atrophied
army and a stunted navy, If we are
content to hold our greatness as the
accept paralysis as a blessing in dis
guise-a narcotic or an anaesthetic. Let
there be no acceptance of Hawaii, no
safeguarding of our interests in the
Antilles or the Pacific, nothing but a
gentle, sudorific acquiescence in the de-
mands of the trusts, the extension of
the pension bills and the tariff on wool.
We should study history and see in
90 etO
the pregnant lesson of the nineteenth
century.
Read. 1t in India, from the time of
Wolseley to that Of Dalhousie. Read
1t in the Burmese policy of Dufferin
Read ii in the foundation of those
Australian commemorative, with their
already worldwide influence. Read 1t
in the Louisiana purchase the Floridas,
the annexation of Texas. Read it in
the Ell Dorado empire, and in the gold
imbedded hyperborean Businesses of
Alaska. Read it in the guise of the
South African confederation, the ad-
vance of England towards the equator
and the Nile Read it in the victories
which overthrow Napoleon and de-
stroyed Lee. Read it in the resistless
march of science, adventure and
steady growth of the British American
confederation, soon likewise to be a po-
tent factor in the affairs Of mankind
And, thus illustrated. put aside the
puny. whimpering policy of paralysis
and despair and accept the advance
into the Pacific and the Antilles as a
part of that high duty which provi-
dence seems to devolve upon the Amer
lean remnant of the Anglo Saxon race
We DO Things Well
Let us drink in the inspiration Of our
own history. American civilization
means creation and growth. The Unit
ed States has touched nothing she has
not improved Take this first century
Of our work. An imperial race with an
imperial purpose-the founder of COM
monwealths, and masterful people.
what we have done has been we'll done
Therefore, why shrink from these op-
pressed West Indian islands, or the
squalid Philippines? We could so re-
generate, so improve them that our
government would be a blessing. To
doubt this, TO question our own energy
and silt down into policy OF paralysis,
would be to dishonor the ennobling les
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