The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-15
The rN:robs of Expansion.

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If Washington pere had not given
Washington fills that Ratchet he would
not have had to chide the lad for hack
ing his favorte cherry tree, and the
generations of American youth that
followed and are to follow would have
missed that charming instance of
sturdy veracity. Give a boy knife,
and he is absolutely certain to cut
something that should be left uncut
When a man, however peaceful his dis
position, gets to carrylns a gun, there
gradually comes into his disposition a
bellicosity that some day leads him up
to a desire to pull it on some one.
And give a nation the implements of
/ war, and the time comes when it wants
to see them put to active use. For
nation is only an aggregation of men,
and the motives that move the average
individual are those which move the
nation.
! Applying these concentrations to the
concrete case presented by present con-
ditions. we find the bacilli that pro-
duoed the present war fever in the pol
icy begun by Secretary Whitney in
Cleveland's first administration of Gre
ating a navy that would bring this
country well up to the top of the list
among the naval powers of the world.
Neither Mr. Cleveland nor Mr.. Whit
ney probably foresaw the consequences
of their policy, though there were those
who, in opposing the policy predict
ed it. 1t was mainly the result of Mr..
Whitney's desire to mark his incum-
bency by some departure from the dead
level of monotony of his predecessors,
just as Postmaster General Hatton lay
awake nights thinking of some way of
distinguishing his administration, until
the immediate delivery stamp came as
an inspiration to him. Had it not been
for that inherited dread of standing
army. had former war secretaries been
successful in getting a large standing
army, there is little doubt that our dis
putes with Canada would have been
the pretext for exercising the army in
campaigns over our northern border.
Had Whitney not come to create our
navy of battleships and armored cruis-
ers, we would have looked on these
Cuban irruptions as calmly and indif-
ferently as we have on all the other
hundred emeutes in which our Spanish
American fellow republicans on this
hemisphere have amused themselves
during the last three-fourths of a CEN
fury. But, having the navy, there came
the same disposition to see it do some
work that moved the little George to
try the edge of his Ratchet. Nothing
else than this can account for our
headlong rush into war; our insistence
upon it after Spain had met every de-
mand made upon her to provoke war.
When the historian instead of the
lingo editor writes history that will be
the verdict.
No one at all in touch with the cur
rent of public opinion but knows that
the immediate consequence of HOSTILE
ties is an outbreak Of the old, inherent
Anglo-SaXon disposition to expand ter
ritorial possessions. However we like
or dislike it, the old spirit is rampant
We are not only going to drive Spain
out of Cuba but also out of Porto
Rico, the Philippines, the Ladrones,
and every other insular possession left
for ourselves. The veneer of senti-
| mentalsm hides the backing of cupid
ity as usual Mr.. Whitney's microbe
has multiplied amazingly but natu-
rally. And, singularly, Democrats now
are opposing a movement that had it's
initiative in the policy of Democratic
administration.