The times., 1898-07-04
AMERICAS POWER.
Rises as n Predominatinc influence
in the Orient.


In the Orient.
New York, July 3.-The question as to
whether the United States shall become a
colonzing nation suggests the lessons to
be learned from history ancient and 4
modern. and the condition of this country
to avail itself of the examples set by other
powers. The great coIonizer of the re-
mote past was Greece. 1t sent out from
its separate city states-Athens, Sparta,
Corinth and others-iarge numbers of har
dy, brilliant and shrewd colonists. who
founded dependent communities and
sometimes sovereign governments along
| the borders of the Aegean, Mediterranean
and Black Seas. Libya, in North Africa,
| contained some of these, and Marseilles.
! in Gaul, was another The Hclenes were
voyagers soldiers and merchants. and
restlessly carried everywhere they went
the germs of Hellenic art and civiliza-
| ton.
| The great masters of the world who
| conquered Greece and its colonies at a
| later period were chiefly warriors and
| politicians. The Romans borrowed the
best of their ideas in literature and phi
| losophy from the Greeks, as the Greeks
| had done. with difference from the
| Egyptians. The Carthaginans and their
| ancestors, the Phoenicians, were chiefly
merchants and ravigators. They were
not, like the Greeks great humanizerS
| and commonwealth builders. Their work
did not endure as long, and 1t was not
| such refined work at best The Egyp
| tians and Hindoos. the Babylonians and
| Assyrians were not. in the full sense, col
onizing peoples. Assyria, that bitter and
| hasty nation" crushed all that came in
its way. ruthless conquerer. until 1t
fell itself i'll a single night Culture, 1t Is
said. radiated from those seats of most
ancient dominion. Egypt and Shaldea,
but it was not so much distributed in col
onies as diffused through learned men
who came as visitors from various parts
of the earth.
In modern times the great coloniZer has
been England While Spain, using the
science and faith of italy, discovered
America, the United Kingdom peopled the
northern part of the continent and set
tied distant Australasia. Its colonies ex-
tend almost from pole to pole and en-
circle the globe. Spain, in the days of
the great Emperor Charles V, had the
| grandest possessions ever held in the
civilized world. only 10 lose them in three
| centuries and a half. While England es-
| tabiished everywhere civil order and good
government, Spain, with barbarIc faulty,
sought TO wiring gold out OF the sweat
and blood of the colonies she founded. II
| was the difference between the modern
man and the medievalist, between the
yeoman and the soldier OF fortune. Seven
centuries of moral conflict between the
cross and the crescent had perverted
the best elements in the old Gothic and
! Celt-lberian natures. The Spaniard had
become bigoted fossiIzed brutalized. The
Spanish conquestador invoked his saint
| Nd 81 Dc ys~ae 4 -fsal
and bastard culture that Spain disse-
nina ted. In the tropics there was small
chance even for that 10 expand The
EnGlishman set up freedom of con-
science; the Spaniard The Inquisition.
The EnGlishman sent the torch of eniIght-
ment into the wilderness: the Spaniard.
darkness and superstitution. The Eng
lishmen on distant shores struck off the
fetters and freed mems minds and bodies
the Spaniard prepared the rack and the
dungeon and the garrOte First to es-
tablish borough representation in the
legislative chamber Spain was the last
TO give to her colonists even the mock
cry of autonomy.
If England, with more than eighty-five
times as much colony as motherland Is
easily the principal cOionist of the world
Germany, with rapid strides, Is pTepar-
ing to be a good second. At present
the colonial possessions of England are
1862, 0T3 square miles with a colonial
population of S22. 600 900. France comes
next. with 2,505, O1j square miles and a.
800 090 population. Germany Is third. hav-
| ing only recently entered upon a career
: | of eoloniZation.f In a short time she has
acquired l6l5,5E square miles of colony
| containing a population Of 7.4500O0 The
official statement issued recently by the
| State Department shows that only Great
Britain. France Holland and Portugal
| frRaa afrt
possessions and protectorates than there
are at home. Spain has sunk from first
TO sixth power in extent OF colonies
though she Is Nth in population of colo
| MES. insignificant Portugal once incor-
e porated with Spain. has nearly double
, the territorial extent of colonies. The
n same remark is true Of Holland The pres
d ent war is likely TO wipe out entirely the
: colonial syster4lof the Spanish nation
{ The Spanish American war like its i'm
y mediate predecessor. the Chino-Japanese
L war. doubtlesss revo,utionizes the East
ern question. No longer do we hear OF
< Turkey and the Danube. 1t is a mat
:. ter of the conquest of the Philippines
n the partition OF China, the probable alb.
o sorption of COrea that perplexes cabi
nets. A new power now arises
Like a glory from afsr,
II and may take part in the adjustment Of
10 commerce ana territory IN lAe Orlent
!, The new power is not Japan, but the
Y United States.
i From the days of the Farewell Address
d the tradition and practice have been L
/ regard this Republic as China once re
= garded herself-as segregated from tn,
p rest of mankind. The United States wa:
5 considered and considered itself, as hay
/ ing nothing 10 do with the affairs of Eu
n rope and Asia. Dewey was ordered Il
= destroy the Manila squadron of Spain
a | and all that seems to have changed il
the forenoon of a glorious May day.
Before the action of Admiral Montojot
fleet there had been conquests and peace
full acquisitions of territory by the Unitet
States. The purchase of Louisiana Ter
n, ritory the annexation of Florida Texas
d New Mexico. and California: the pur
n chase of Alaska, had all brought vas
additions to the nations border posses
u sions. None of these things had beel
II done in the dark. All of them had COS
treasure, and some of them had onl,
III come after the expenditure of both bloc,
and treasure.
But they had been incorporated a
~ American territory into the leadin
r American State. or confederacy Of States
They had not been geographically sepa
" rated. except in the single instance 0
re Alaska. Now. in the twinkiing of an eye
n the splendid colony of Spain in the Pa
"a "a cific. more than eight thousand mile
~ away. and less than seven hundred mile
or distant from the dissolving Chinese EN-
p pire is thrown into Americas lap by III
FL changes of war. At once the condition
are altered. Whereas before there wa