Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-18
OUR MANIFEST DESTINY
Some Suggestions That Follow the Taking
of the Philippines
The Pacific, and Not the Atlantic, is
Our Opportunity for Future
Development.

Written for The Evening Star by I. Edwards Clarke
The echo of Commodore Dewey's victo-
rious guns had hardly ceased to reverberate
along the shores Of Manila harbor before
the newspaper directors Of the destinies of
rations were discussing the entirely aca-
demfc question as to whether We should
hand over the passive inhabitants of the
philippines to the sovereignty of Great Brit
ain or Japani
Consider how many assumptions underlie
these propositions. Have the millions of
natives no voice in the disposal of their
country! Have the foreign business popu-
lation no interests worthy of consideration?
Or assuming that Spain was the rightful
cWrer of land and people and that thu
United States by virtue of conquest inherits
all the property rights and ruling powers of
the conquered nation, wherein exists the
immediate necessity of giving up these
dear-bought rights Of rule and property TO
some third power?
Let us consider for a moment the present
situation in the light of the immediate past
and the threatening contingencies OF the
near future Whether the people of the
United States realize it. not, it Is very
clear to careful Observers that since the
ending of the war of the rebellion this
country has filled a far larger place in the
worlds consideration than ever before. 1t
Is also true that the country fills far
larger place in the estimation of all it's
children than before those historic years of
sorrow, sacrifice and struggle, wherein the
uEselfshness, the patriotic devotion the
self-sacrifice, as well as the courage, the re-
sources, the energy and the endurance of
all the combatantS on either side were test
ed and proved as never before. Out of that
furnace trial of civil war came forth the
pure gold of nation. For the first time
men realized that this great people were Il
people of equals-equal in their willingness
to subordinate self to a great patriotic
cause. The lessons taught on Il hundred
holly contested battlefields. that American
men, from whatever part of the land they
come-from north, south, east or west-were
equal in courage and devotion, can never be
forgotten Mutual respect for each others
manliness makes sure foundation for con-
tinuing confidence The magnanmity of
Grant, the manliness of Lee at the closing
event of the struggle, well illustrate and
emphasize this truth
Inevitably, decade by decade, this coun-
try has. step by step, advanced from it's
small dc main, comprising a narrow fringe
of scattered colonies on the western shore
of the Atlantic, to its present continental
empire, sweeping from ocean to ocean and
from the lakes to the gulf, while the three
millions of century ago have grown into
nigh eighty millions of Americans today
Early In the century our statesmen saw
that our true interests were to b. found on
this side the Atlantic, and most wisely the
lessons of non-interference in European
complications were sedulously inculcated,
with the essential corollary that European
interference in this hemisphere was never
to be increased.
A study of the map of North and South
America is an object lesson of manifest
destiny" One people. are to occupy the
great body of this continent because the
mighty rivers the natural highways run
from the northern lakes to the gulf; and no
people who lived at the sources of great
naVigable streams were ever willing that
a foreign nation should control their outlet
to the sea.
today the development of history has steade
lily progressed toward the unifcation of its
Inhabitants. Some day, in the near re-
mote future, the United States will stretch
all the islands adjacent. So the map
prophesies, and so the making OF the Mic
aragua canal proclaims.
Now, Europe, whose countries are well
populated, has seized upon Africa, and di-
vided up the unknown continent into
spheres of control''-Amerca can have lit
tie share in the trade of Europe or Africa
while in Asia England holds India by CEN
fury right Of conquest and rule.
To our fast-growing millions the trade
across the Atlantic offers little-we are
forced to look to that other ocean on which
our coast infringes for hundreds of miles
The Pacific is our Mediterranean sea. That
Hawaii should be ours has long been adj
mitted by the world generally. Could
Grants foresight nave prevailed Samoa
had been ours without interference of Eu-
ropean powers.
Now. suddenly. events, which wait the
convenience Of neither men nor nations,
have thrown into our hands an island en-
pire in the far east at the very turn of time
when the commercial nations of Europe are
haggling over their proposed dismember-
ment of the enormous empire of China
seeking each to secure for itself the trade
of those teeming millions. Be sure that
neither Russia, England, nor Germany,
whatever they may prate of free ports.
will favor the trade needs of the United
States in the slightest If America Is not
to sink into the commercial insigniicance
of China in world commerce America
must seize and hold her vantage ground in
the Pacific. Short-sighted party policies
gave to England 5440 degrees north lati-
tude; and so, today, the Klondike threat
ems complications. Timid statesmen hest
tate to accept Hawaii. The same policy
which disappointed Grant of SANTANA bay,
San Domingo. lost us Samoa.
We are now forced to face the problem
whether or no we will now assume our
legitimate position of world power-to say
whether the three hundred millions of
their place in their world we fill ours
today. or whether they shall fall into the
useless ranks of the timid peace nations
like China, and be the spoil of stronger
peoples.
The Pacific holds our destinies and not the
Atlantic These suggestions are offered in
the hope that the question of the DISPOSE
ton of the Philippine Islands will not be
thoughtlessly or hastily decided.
SUGGEST CHANGES.