The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-20
Discussed at National Conven-
ton on Foreign Policy.
PROBLEM OF ANNEXATION
Judge Grosscup Warmly Defends the
Policy OF Territorial Expansion-He
Sees Immense Trade Possibil-
tiles in the Far East.

| Rogers or chicago, chairman or the
| committee on arrangements. Rogers
said the conference was called to con-
slider some of the most momentous
| questions in the history of the republic.
| He spoke of the war and returned
| prayerful thanks for the peace now at
hand. While peace has arrived. he
said. there were many serious problems
| to be considered. He referred to the
close friendship between Americans
and British which would promptly lead
| to international arbitration and finally
| to universal peace. The speaker spoke
| favorably of the Nicaraguan canal.
which he urged should be built and
! controlled by the United States gov
ernment. That canal would shorten
! the distance by water to San Francisco
| by 10000 miles.
The question of the Ncaraguan canal
/ wa taken up and Warner Miller of New
| York took the platform. He briefly
| spoke of his persistent advocacy of the
| canal. Events of the past three months
demanded the immediate construction
and he believed all Americans were
now universally in favor of it, as was
| all of Europe. He spoke of the numeT-
| Gus surveys made of every proposed
| route to pierce the isthmus and said
| the route by the way of the Nicaraguan
| canal has received the greatest consid-
| Grafton as both feasible and desir-
| able.
| Mr.. Miller referred to several canals
| that have materially aided in opening
UP the country. The Nicaragua canal
| would alone save us 10000 miles and
would be a great outlet for those states
| on the Pacific coast. The continent is
| gridironed with transcontinental rail-
| roads, but these do not alone afford
| the advantages that could be secured
| by a canal. 1t is question Of cheap
transportation and the Nicaraguan
| canal would solve the problem. With
in 10 years after the completion of the
canal, the population of the Pacific
/ states will have increased to 10, 000, 900.
| One of the best results of the Spanish
| American war is that ii will compel
the building of the Nicaraguan canal
| The entire morning session was de-
| voted to a discussion of the Nicaraguan
| canal.
The annexation problem was taken up
! at the afternoon session of the national
! conference. Carl Schurz of New York
| spoke at length, giving the views Of the
/ anti-eXpansionists, whose cause he ad-
vocated. He was opposed by judge
] Grosscup of Chicago, who is an earnest
| expansionist.
Judge Grosscup said in part: II am
| among those who believe that the peo-
pie of the United States without breach
of faith 10 the promises of our past or
/ serious danger to the expectations of
| our future, hold permanently all or
| portion of the territory that has been
| occupied by our troops during the
/ progress of the war. l am ready to go
a step further and assert that the obli-
| cations of our duty toward mankind
and especially toward the particular
| peoples who have been drawn within
| the sphere of our operations, and to-
| ward the future usefulness of ourselves,
| demand that we should permanently
| retain so much of these, the captures
! of war, as are needed to round out the
moral purposes for which it was inaug-
urated and the greater destiny on
| which, as a nation, we are about to
enter.
-Four months ago the eyes of the
nation were habitually turned inwardly
| upon itself. The industries and COM
merce of this continent monopoliZed us.
| Our policies were the policies of Amer
lea alone, running too frequently, par
| ticularly in their financial and COM
mercial phases, into thing apart from
the corresponding systems of the
world. 1t was. in my judgment, a prov
| idential hand. ~loved in the smoke of
| battles, that led us out from these con-
| fining boundaries to the mountain spur
| we now occupy. There is moral eleva-
| ton in a wide outlook. AS people wa
| for the first time look clearly over the
empires of the earth. Without the sac
rifice of righteousness or honor, but as
| the ministers of both, the invitation
| comes to take our share in the oppor-
tunities and responsibilities Of this
wider field. The immediate question.
the one that by its solution will either
bring us in or bar us out of this large
national sphere, relates to the perma-
nent occupation of our Spanish con-
I nnaGfG The frup nnpSTinn is Whpth-
er Porto Rico. Hawaii and the Philip
pines are intrinsically worth the re-
spOnsibilities incurred by their occupa-
ton; whether their commerce and re-
sources will counterbalance the new
dangers that their requirement will in
troduce into our political system, Tor l
see behind them in the horizon toward
which we are heading, looming up from
the Pacific in mountainous interests
and opportunity. against which the out
lines of the Philippines are but hand
speck. something more than Islands
nothing else than a continent.
Within Asia lies the interest and the
opportunity that. by it's largeness,
dwarfs every other prospect. / favor
the ACQUISITION of Porto Rico, partly be-
cause the moral purpose of this war de-
mands that il should not longer be
political plague spot in the otherwise
purified Caribbean sea. but chiefly be
cause is il at the gateway to the Carib-
bean-a sea that when the commerce Of
Asia is fully developed and the Nicara-
guam canal opened. will, from both
naval and commercial view. become the
most important water on the face Of the
globe. i favor the acquisition Of Hawaii
and favor the acquisition of the Philip
pines, or so much Of them as may be
needed. solely because in the new ca
reer of commercial activity. upon which
I trust we are about to enter, we need
clear across the Pacific a line OF naval
stations and home ports; stations in
every sense our own. carrying under the
soil the American title and over il the
American flag
Il favor the reteutiOn Of she Philip