The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-11
THE BIRTH OF A NATION.
This Writer Sees National Expan-
sion i'm the Near Future.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
At the present time America is taking her
third great step in the march of national
life, and one that will prove as great as
either of the two preceding it and bring as
marked a change in national life as either
Of them. The Declaration Of Independence
marked the first, the war Of the rebellion
for human liberty the second, and this one
takes US beyond Washington's advice of no
foreign intertangling alliances, beyond the
Monroe doctrine, beyond our limited con-
sentative stay-at-home ideas and beyond
extreme tariff doctrine to the high planes
of the world with possessions beyond our
own shores. Be this for better or worse,
this Nation is not in a position to change
the inevitable or dictate conditions. In the
steady process Of international evolution in
the birth of new nations and the death of
old ones the United States finds itself face
to face with contingencies that the wsest
statesman would not have dreamed of
few years ago. In the death throes of
Spain her always bitter and tyrannical
nature becomes more oppressive and more
cruel, and in the name or humanity America
mas been forced to intervene in the long and
unbroken reign of blood and oppression in
Cuba, but before we have Spain driven out
OF Cuba 10! we have destroyed their fleet
at Manila, and now we are confronted with
the stubborn, possibly not pleasant fact
that we have got to assume control and
furnish government for the Philippine
islands well for Cuba and Porto Rico.
AS we look down the vista of this new
nursed on the bosom of war, another fact
arises before US, and one that has been
avoided and feared by probably every
statesman of note in the past, and that is
foreign possessions. But the quick, keen
perception of American intellect grasps the
idea and finds the inevitable is likewise the
necessity.
Since Washington and Jefferson and Mon
roe America has grown as has the world,
and as the coat that fit the boy Will not
suit the man, America can no longer live
alone out of touch with the world. Rapid
transit, ocean travel, unlimited commerce.
q sense, made the world all one, at least
near kin. We cannot If we would, be alone
any longer. America being the greatest
agricultural producer in the world, with
manufacturing equally wonderful, cannot
maintain a greatness as secluded state;
it must go into the highways and byways
of commerce, must have ships almost with
out number to carry our products away and
bring back what we want from other ma
tons. This vast merchant marine can only
find permanent safety backed by great
navy A great navy, or even small navy,
is a very helpless thing beyond its own
coast line in days of danger. Either must
have coaling stations, docks and ports for
war ships. Though the Indiana seems to be
an all powerful creature, it is quite help
less thing if it has no coal, or, If needing
repairs, it has no port and no dock. So we
are compelled to accept the inevitable and
go into business right and supply all the
demands of the Nation. The necessities of
war. it seems, will force US to take a num-
Der of islands from Spain. If we rescue the
people from a bad government we are NOR
ally bound to give them a better one. We
cannot give them anything as good as we
find beneath the American flag. So, all at
once we find ourselves just ready to take
possession of provinces and furnish govern
ment for strangers and mixed races. VIII
the great Republic be equal to the occasion?
With the prejudice of home love. patriot
ism and pride of country Americans will
quickly believe they are.
AS we pass out into this broader and
greater field the Nation takes on a new
life; it is born again. The old conservatism
and narrow bounds Of limited domestic life
must give way and the ships go down to
the sea. The flag must wave over islands
and a Congress receive representatives from
equatorial states as well as frozen Alaska.
This last step will carry America to still
greater, grander, more magnificent beat1-
tude than it has yet attained. 1t will give
the best Anglo-SaXon civilization to millions
of the most oppressed in the world. These
same conditions, in a sense, presented them
selves to England long ago. England had
to accept them and act or die; the genius
of her statesmen and the patriotism of her
people acted, and England lives because of
the very conditions America has dreaded.
indianapolis, May 10. j. A. HOUSER,