The record-union., 1898-06-29
TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG.

The Humboldt Standard strikes the
Key note of our future when it says
that the pressing demand upon our
nation is for expansion of its commerce,
and that this includes very naturally
acquisition. It is a truth which history
supports that great and successful ma
tions on the lines of manufacture, pro-
duction and invention must find fields
for commercial expansion. They can
not always be placed at the mercy of
other nations for commercial extension.
They must cease-t to expand commercial
ly If they are not in a. position by rea-
son of their possessions to command
relations with other countries. not be-
seech them.
Weak and declining as is Spain, 1t is
NOT because Of her many possessions
scattered over the globe, for it is agreed
that had she treated them as was their
due they would always have been ele-
ments OF strength in her composition
Every one Of them is rich and fertile;
every one of them produces more for
absorption by the mother country than
the cost of maintaining control over
them. Every one of them has been a
heavy tribute payer to Spain.
Holland, Denmark and Portugal,
small as they are, maintain many pos
sessions abroad, and find them sources
of great strength and means whereby
they command commercial respect for
+Izx
ers is hampered by any of it's far
away possessions. Why, then, should
the United States fear to own abroad
Denmark could not defend her insuiar
possessions a day against any second
rate Power, and Portugal not week
against a first-cfass Power, yet no one
for moment fears that any of this or
der of States is in danger of being de-
spoiled of any of their colonial posses
sions. Indeed, all Of them add to
them as opportunity presents, and to-
day Portugal, like England, has more
colonial territory than is embraced
within the bounds of the Continental
State
Though she has been at swords
points much of the time with one or
another Power for a century, France
has not found her colonies to be sources
of weakness, nor has she lost them even
when at war On the contrary, she
has constantly added to them, and has
found them to be elements of strength.
Nearly every flag of Europe IS found
Tr7s7i iac 1Ntrf ,Ix-
over a narrow sandpit six miles long
and half mile wide, over which the
Caribbean Sea sweeps in storm seasons
The standard well says:
The false alarm about our having to
arm ourselves to successfully resist all
the nations of Europe in order to hold
the Philippines, Hawaii and Porto Rico
is raised for the purpose of deluding the
people who do not read and reason for
themselves. We shall be in no more
danger Of conquest by foreign nations
with those islands annexed than we
are to-day. We shall increase our COM
merce and build up our merchant ma
rine, now so sadly fallen to decay, If we
take and hold these islands Why are
the European nations contending for
possessions in Asia, Africa and the
islands of the sea? Merely to build up
their commerce; to monoplize the
trade Of those countries. Shall we. then.
allow the great nations Of Europe 10
take possession Of all the countries ard
islands of the earth and shut us out of
the worlds markets when we have the
power TO take and hold a part of them
for ourselves? BY this we do not mean
that We shall enter upon a career of
conquest and landgrabbing, but that
We shall take and hold and make better
and more prosperous the islands which
fall to US as the result of this war.
America has been grand in her jsoIa-
t1on; she can be still grander as a COM
mercial Power; but never If the coun-
sells OF White and Pettigrew shall pre-
vail