River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1898-06-02

The feet of Admiral Sampson. the fly
ing squadron, the regular army and the
volunteer army do not constitute the
entire sum total of cur national
strength, nor of our national purposes.
Circumstances are running away be
yond the primary intent and purpose of
President Mckinley.
We have always maintained fleet in
Asiatic waters, and our naval station
there must be maintained. CIrcum-
stances are such that we cannot afford
to forever withdraw our battleships and
cruisers from Asiatic waters. We can
not live in our own shell like a national
snail.
When this country abandons the
Asiatlc station, it will be time for us to
abandon Alaska, and when we aban-
don Alaska we may as well make ready
TO abandon our Pacific coast states. In
brief, we must be one of the foremost
nations of the world in every respect,
or we will sink on; of sight and deserve
the sneers and snubs which have here
totore been put upon us by the powers
of the old world. We must be narrow or
we must broaden out.
To-day we have not place in Asia
where we may stop over night and be
welcome. Because we are at war with
Spain there Is DO harbor open to us
along the eastern coast of Asia, and
there is no coaling place for the ships of
our Asiatic squadron. The American
citizens who first face this fact must
. Il bt,r, Ii1t hut Sc
true that we are not allowed to-day to
enter Asiatic harbors for food, coal or
any other of the necessities of life
which may be called contraband of war.
Our humiliation is deeper when we
note and acknowledge the fact that our
republic is the only nation of the first
class that can be kicked out OF Asia in
this unceremonious manner. All of the
European nations have coaling stations
and commercial footholds over there.
But our naval vessels had to get out
and fight for a foothold, or else steam
across the Pacific ocean 10000 miles.
When our people understand this fact
they will say unanimously that it is not
right.
From the beginning of the Cuban war
the American republic has been sus-
pected by European nations OF having
sinister designs of conquest. There
was no such intention on the part of our
people, nor in the mind of the admin
stration. But circumstances have al
tered conditions so radically, and in
tcrnational developments have been so
marked, that it became necessary for
us TO take possession of the Philippine
islands; not merely for the present, but
for the future. The war with Spain has
brought about this result as one of the
dnforseen conditions of the times.
Some of our statesmen who have bit
terly opposed the annexation of the
Hawaiian islands now favor action on
that line. 1t is daily more and more APP
parent that we must have military and
naval strength IN the Pacific ocean, or
we will fall behind in the procession of
the nations Of the century; and prob
ably fall behind for all time in the
march of civilization and progress.
Our institutions are now being unex-
pectedly tested, and the republic is rap
idly rounding into an epoch which viii
bring TO our constitutional government
of the people veal or woe; an epoch
which might have been avoided, averted
or delayed by sound diplomacy. In the
very near future these views of states
men will be outlined in congre ssional
debate. At present the conditions and
environments are known only in the
confidential conferences of statesmen,
in the capitol cloak rooms or in the pri-
vacy of their homes.
Ever since the order went to Admiral
Dewey to attack the Philippine islands,
the eses of our diplomats have been
centered upon the orient, and but little
thought has been given to the fleet in
Cuban waters, the flying squadron or
the land forces which have been mobil-
ling at the various designated points
of rendezvous. The horizon of the ma
tions they have scanned, viewing the
peoples who are avariciously grasping
for future aggrandizement. Our most
able statesmen believe that for self-pro-