The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-06-15
WEDNESDAY. JUNE IS. 1893.
WHERE SHALL OUR ANNbAA'
TIONS END?

From the beginning Of agitation 10
wards that end The Times has s'eaoIlS
or2osed the annexation OF the ha"aii"n
,sls,ds To annex them is TO depart en-
,,reiv from that theory Of government
,,nder which we have lived for more tLan
hundred years and prospered as no
people ever prospered before. The Times
frankly admits its fear Of what viii
hammer II we abandon our old lime
notion that the United States are ols
enough for us ana enter upon a career
of world ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. MI Chaihp
clarke. Of Missouri was very iehei'ous
and argumentatlve also when ne salu
las week that il this policy is entered
rpoo we may soon see in Congress ft-
representatives. from Fiji, Terra del Fuego'
and also from the Cannibal isles who
would address themselves to the present
occupant Of the chair with cleaning
teeth and longing glances as they sur
viewed his rotund and cnticing form. we
cannot retain a republican form OF gov
eminent without admitting each section
OF the world that we annex - fuH ana
equal representation in our Congress and
an all departments Of our government
And when We begin that it seems almost
certain TO us that we shall begin TO de-
scend from that lofty plane that no.
,nogeneous population Of Anglo-Saxon de-
scent and with Anglo-Saxon traditions
has kept us on. we look, with the ut
most alarm, upon the prospect which
foreign annexations opens to us, and yet
we are bound TO admit that the annexa-
ton OF Hawaii seems now a foregone
conclusion. We have no doubt that the
opponents Of Hawaiian annexation would
have been able to defeat the project If
this miserable war had not been forced
upon us. But the war almost compelled
us 10 seize the Philippine islands. and,
with a fixed interest there the islands Of
Hawaii seemed almost a necessity as
ooaling station. Events, therefore, have
driven us along TO this result which we
look for very soon now and the pract-
cal question for US now is what are we
going TO do in regard to the other ac-
QUESTIONS that we will be pressed 70
make?
It is time the American people were
considering this question most carefully
in order that something like a definite
and fixed policy may be arrived at by
the people in the aggregate.
We don't want the Philippine islands.
1T is true they are said to be an unde-
veloped mine OF wealth. but we need not
oovet everything in the world that is a
good thing The British Klondike is said
10 be enormously valuable and so are the
gold mines Of the Witwatersrand in
Africa. But we can have all the prosper
fly that we ought 20 have without either,
and we arc not going to be made mis-
cradle even If both places remain sub
sect to English dominion for all time.
But valuable as they may become the
Philippine Islands are in every way I'M
suitable TO as They are said to have a
population close upon a million OF souls.
the overwhelming majority OF which are
little better than half-tamed savages.
What are we TO do with these people 81
we annex the islandsg Are we 10 admit
tho islands as States OF the Union with
fun representation in the Senate and
House Of Representatives and with fun
and equal voice in our electoral college?
Every instinct OF the citizen of the Uni
ted States reyolts at the suggestion. Be
fore our eyes is the horrible political
decentralization which the negro vote
causes in the Southern States The Phi
lppine islanders is not nearly so wen
ftted for the suffrage as the Southern
negro. What an age Of ballot-box stuff
mig and political degradation OF every
kind would we see then II the islanders
were made citizens Of the United States,