The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-10
END TO FALSE ECONOMY
One Effect of the Spanish War
Situation.
MILLIONS FOR COAST DEFENSE.


Navy to Back Our Diplomacy = Ac-
ceptance OF New Responsib iIities-Radi
cal Change In Our Policy.
WASHINGTON, March 10-[Special. One
great result Of the Spanish war situation
is to put an end oAe policy of economy
which has reigned So long In this country.
1t Is now admitted by the most ardent ad
vocates of small expenditures that this ma
ton has been penny wise and pound fool
ish. The theory upon which our govern
mental policy has been framed for many
years is that we need never fear foreign
war, that no nation would dare attack us,
that we were secure In our isolation, and
that therefore no need existed of providing
great navy, keeping IA big army or build
ing elaborate coast defenses. A few public
spirited and farsighted men, among them
Samuel j. Tilden, the great Democrat,
and James q. Blaine, the great Republic
an, did not agree with this conclusion.
They appealed to their countrymen again
and again for provision against possibili-
ties. They argued that the way to secure
peace was to prepare for war.
Mr.. Iilden's striking letter asking con-
gress to vote Sl00,000,000 for coast de-
lenses, which President Cleveland treated
with such scant courtesy, although Mr..
Tilden had virtually selected him as his
political heir and made him president, ev-
cry one will now recall. / remember most
wildly a conversation / had with Mr..
Blaine about four years before his death.
at Is shame we cannot have great
navy and splendid system of coast de-
lenses" said Mr.. Blaine. "This is the
richest country in the world. Our revenue
possibilities exceed those of any nation,
even England. The amount of money we
could raise without seriously burdening
our people Is the envy of all foreign stu
dents of government Yet we hide our
heads in the sands of our fancied security.
We go along with the comfortable theory
that no matter how many troubles other
nations have we are the one exception to
the rule and that no trouble will ever come
to us. -
"But is not diplomacy better than warp
asked Mr.. Blaine.
DIPLOMACY is good thing, a fine
thing, splendid thing" answered Mr..
Blaine impressively, "but, my dear sir,
there Is no real diplomacy without big
guns.
"A world of philosophy was contained in
this remark. There is in truth no real
diplomacy without big guns to support
the contentious of the diplomatists. If
the United States had no better navy
now than we had 30 years ago, what
would be SPANS attitude toward us
at the present time? What treatment
would she have accorded to us during the
last six months? Our diplomacy would
have been as futile as the boasts of
| drunken man. We should have been with
out respect or power We should have been
run over ruthless y at every turn of the
road.
A New Era.
But now IL is almost universally admit
ted in Washington that we have come to a
new era. We have reached point in our
national development where we cannot
| longer escape the responsibilities that nat
urally fall to the lot of great and power
full nation. Power always brings respon-
sibility, and nation is like an individual
| in that respect. The time has gone by in
which we can safely hide our head in the
sand of isolation, assume that we have 10
| concern with the affairs of other nations,
| and that our entire function and duty
| may be found within our own borders.
| From this day forward the United States
| is one of the great political powers of the
| world, destined to play an active and i'm
portant part in the worlds activities.
| While it is true we fortunately have the
| traditional doctrine of noninterference in
| the affairs of the old world, for there the
! great powers have the duty of regulation
and control to perform, it is by the same
| token true that we have pressing duty
| to perform in the new world, duty from
| which wo cannot escape.
The United States is the great nation of
! the American hemisphere. Here we have
set up the Monroe doctrine, which is sim
ply an acceptance of the responsibility rs to
western affairs which the great powers of
| Europe assume as to matters on the other
! side of the Atlantic. If there were another
| great power in Americas If, for instance,
| Mexico were anywhere near our equal,
that power would have joint responsibility
| with us for such management of the inter
national relations on this continent as
would best conduce TO the progress of civ
iliZation and commerce. great nation
in these modern times is something more
than an aggregation of selfish interests,
/ looking only to its interior prosperity. Its
/ first duty Is, Of course, to Its own people,
but its humanity is not to stop at its own
! doors any more than is that of Christian
/ householder. If man hears signs of muir
der, walls of distress, news of terrible suf-
/ fering and disorder in his neighbours yard,
it is his duty to go to the rescue. lie need
not necessarily make war upon his neigh
Dor, but he has not only the right, but the
duty, to interfere to compel peace and to
save bloodshed and stop misery.
Our National Responsibilities.
Among nations just the same rights and
duties exist, and tho greater and moro
| noxyerful tho nation tho keener becomes
this duty and the more clear its right A
| powerful nation is something more than a
mere scheme of government within its own
borders; 1t is trustee for the worlds bet
/ terment, peace and well being. 1t cannot
escape its duty If it would. For these rea-
sons the United States of today has become
a different nation from the United States
of go or 90 years ago. We grow and move
with the world. The same natural laws
that thrust porEibility upon the nations
of Europe thrust upon us. We have no
right to say we are concerned only about
our domestic policies and that we are new