The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-20
ON A MORAL PLANE
Judge GrOsscup Says 1t is the
Duty
Of the United States to Hold
Conquered Territory.
OWE 1T TO MANKIND
As Well as to Ourselves to Do
Intrinsic Worth and RESPONSE
bility Not to Be Regarded.

Saratoga, Aug. 20.-The colonial extern
sion problem was taken up at the after
noon session of the national conference
on the policy of the United States.
Carl Schurz of New York spoke at
length, giving the views of the anti-ex-
pansionists, whose cause he advocated.
He was opposed by Judge Grosscup of
Chicago, who is an earnest expansionist.
Judge Grosscup said in part:
Il am among those who believe that
the people of the United States, without
breach of faith to the promises of our
past or serious danger to the expectations
OF our future, can hold permanently all, or
a portion of the territory that has been
occupied by our troops during the prog
ress of the war. I am ready to go a. step
further and assert that the obligations
OF our duty toward mankind, and espe-
claIly toward the particular peoples VINO
have been drawn within the sphere of our
ness or ourselves, demand that we should
hold permanently SO much of these, the
out the moral purposes for which it was
inaugurated, and the greater destiny up
on which, as a nation, We are about to
-Four months ago the eyes of the ma
ton were habitually turned inwardly upon
Itself The industries and commerce of
this continent monopohzed US. Our poll
running too frequently, particularly in
their financial phases, into thing apart
world. It was. in my Judgment, a provi-
dental hand, gloved In the smoke of bat
boundaries to the mountain spur we now
occupy. There is moral elevation in a
first time, look clearly over the empires
of the earth. Without, the sacrifice of
righteousness or honor, but the minis
ters of both. the invitation comes to take
our share in the opportunities and respon-
sibilities of this wider field. The imme-
date question, the one that by its sOlu-
6to4 ~ Wili eItaer bting US IN or par US out
the permanent occupation of our Span
whether Porto Rico Hawaii and Phil
ippineS are tntrinsically worth the re-
b inquired by thelr ocGupa
sources will counterbalance the new dan
gers that their requirement would intro
duce into our political system. For 1 see
behind them in the horizon to which we
in mountainous Interest and opportunity
against which the outlines of the Philip
pines are but hand speck-something
continent. Within Asia lies the interest
dwarfs every other prospect. favor the
acquisition of Porto Rico, partly because
that it should no longer be a political
plague spot in the otherwise purified Ca
the gateway to the Caribbean~a sea that
when the commerce of Asia Is fully deveI-
op6d ana the Nicaragua canal opened,
will from both a naval and commercial
view, become the most important water
on the face OF the globe. I favored the
acquisition of Hawaii, and I favor the
acquisition of the Philippines, or so much
OF them as may be needed, solely because, |
in the new career of commercial activity
upon which. L trust, we are about to
ter, we need, clear across the Pacific, a
line of naval stations and home ports |
stations in every sense our own, carrying
under the soil the American title and over
it the American flag.
4 favor the retention of the Philippines |
or at least part of them, that they may
stand as a tangible continuing demonstra-
ton of the physical presence of the re-
public in Asiatic waters The value of
these conquered islands is not in their ter
IlLOry, nor their resources, separately con-
Sidered, but in the fact that as an entire
ty they constitute a chain precisely adapt |
ed to the expanded sphere in which we
are to enter 1 care little for the Islands
individually, but everything for the chain |
which will hencefOrth hold US to our op-
pOrtunities in the far east"
Judge GroSscup declared that in his |
Judgment, the most interesting and i'm |
portant object of our future foreign pol |
icy was involved in the immediate future !
of Asia. The breakup in the current /
of ASiatic life is at hand, he declared. and |
the gates are opening upon market the !
daWned upon the world The far-seeing |
statesmen of Europe appreciate the situ- |
must soon compass it.
In conclusion, Judge Grosscup declared |
that the course of the nation wars clear. |
II the American people are earnest in their |
purpose to participate in the development |
of the east, he said, they needed these !
islands strategic pOintS.~and a an in I
tegral part of the naval force Without /
a naval display, he asserted, the country |
can never secure its proper share in the !
it is obtained.
A general discussion followed particle
pated in by Judge. Grosscup, Carl Schnrz, |
Thurber of New York, John w Coughiin |
Of FAN River, J. Davis Duffield of Fail |
River, F. Schak of New York and others. |
William Dudley Bull of Indiana last |
night made a lengthy and strong address |
in favor Of territorial expansion. Con- |
chuSetts made address on the irnnor- |
ality of prize money.