The San Francisco call., 1898-09-10

to darken the whole of the ancient Chi nese @ @ empire. Germany has ar an ilimrpatlent Il IL because he is unable to shape the des- tiny of the present war. Then there IS France, afraid of herself, haunted by the memory of the Commune, by the shadows of both the royal and imperial crowns, protecting the honor of the army by the sacrifice of Judicial honor yet great ln
 through ambition and maybe to avert
 Ta repube the sub@est
 of nation triumphing over ruin and disaster that the world has ever seen: Then 1St Japan has risen like a shaft Of an empire on an island too small for its destiny. Then China, with her immense cies and Literature, gradually losing | coastline that would make another coun- try as great as any in the world. Eng
 land, with her hand upon every conti- nent. Spain, once the Rome of the mod ern world. whence Iberian Caesars waged offensive war in the Netherlands, America, shook with glance the thrones of the Tudor and .Valois, now, alas, the ''Niobe of nations" stretching her vast, | this is the epitome of national greatness l and national decline. and we are thrown | In the midst of it all. and soldiers are songs and sending their boys to the war, and venerable statesmen are making theft aths 6n oraee and
 ditions. Stop moment to think of 1t all.
 We have largely to deal with natural | vival of the fittest has been the law of progress since the world began. It Is thpndering hSn down the path of the ages; | million of people fighting for very exist ence along the shores of the Atlantic. gradually, pushing into the great valleys l or the West onward to the Pacific flll- l filling the poetic prophecy that West ward the course of empire takes it's way. and a divided country, then foreign war | and with a united country. We see small navy, but the greatest in the world in proportion to size; with skilled officers, | conquers in the face of Spanish valor. We see it in the shining Orient annihilating the, loss of man. We see it in the West 1 Indies against the pride of the Spanish navy, destroying it. making captives its | admiral, it's officers and it's crews, with Oregon sail out of the harbor of San
 Francisco, .traversing more than half | upon the scene of war without a bolt | shaken or a screw loose, and plunging into the thick of battle. We see our land forces. untrained volunteers, fighting | their way against odds, against deadly | fire, against strong intrenchments; we 1 see whole columns go down, others take
 
 | spangled Banner" is sung, they reach the | top of the hill, and the world echoes with the praise of their valor. Isn't it hard to tell so much courage, so much genius and l so much patriotism that 1t Is all to be | bounded by the traditions of long ago? 1 It Is a difficult problem, for the hand l that kindles cannot quench the f1ame.' | It is burning all along these shores; it | is in the minds of men and the hearts of women. It IS mighty impulse. never | looking backward
 'The moving finger writes; and having | writ
 Moves on; nor all thy piety nor wit l Shall lure 1t back to cancel half a line, Nor all thy tears wash out word of it. .'
 Mothers have given their sons for it,
 haa bsen | can all their tears wash out word of it nor tradition lure it back to cancel half l ing to go into the thick of battle, to cut cables under the fire of Spanish batteries,
 to block up harbors with sunken ships. And does tradition ask these men, as if
 have. conquered? Young America is pressing hard against this slender thread, | tradition" Which is the stronger and which will break? Then tradition tells us not to meddlee in the affairs of the Far | ton. Shall we let some one else take | care of them for us? We are
 reductas while on he other Rand we supply them with but little The | balance of trade is largely against us
 more it viii be against us One Ameri- 1 can city upon the Asiatic coast would enable Americans to control in a great measure the Asiatic output, whereas to- l day Europeans are the middle men and grow rich upon the commerce of the Pa | cfic. Such a city would also open for us an interior trade in Asia. The time is approaching when this fact will become I more prominent in our commercial rela- ! tions. We have been the pioneers in the East. We opened the ports of Japan and \ that ever burst into that silent sea- Yet tradition and a few mdre letters have kept us off and other nations have gone on and we have so impressed them with our traditional policy of an ''ocean-bound republic" that the least bit of assertion on our part Is regarued in the light of War has been a small matter compared with the problems that grow out of it. | If we have been strong and wise in one. 1 let us not be weak in the other: If we 1 fought for humanity. it will not bless us | should we return the Philippines to Spain l for misgovernment. Humanity has suf- l full islands have been cursed with her; | people have been scourged by her, every l thing has been blasted that she has | touched, and
 Hope whitening fled and mercy sighed fare we'll
 What shall we do with the Philip pines?" Spain cannot govern them; anarchy must. not destroy them; they shall not~be handed over to other na- tions to be used against us There is a difference between fighting for conquest and taking the fruits of war as the re- suit of victory. One is the strained effort toward national expansion, finding quar- rel in a straw; the other is the natural and logical result of events not to be dreaded nor avoided. Whatever policy progress may suggest should be ours, we should hold to that doctrine destined to expand our commerce, and commercial protection should carry to all Eastern countries our influence, even though such influence should be protected by our flag If this means conquest, then let con quest come; but it does not mean con- quest. It simply means that the destiny of America has not been told by sibylline prophecies nor handed down through mar row traditions: but on the contrarv it is to be measured by the genius of the An glo-Saxon wherever they may carry her beautiful flag in consequence of the bur dens as we'll as the opportunities yet to come upon her.
 There has been much of the idea that the decay of races has been occasioned In vaulting ambition o'erleaping itself in hot chi ioia