Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1898-09-27
Rouss on Expansion.

The following letter from Charles
Broadway Rouss. the blind millionaire
merchant, who started life without a
penny, was written to the Hagerstown
Globe. by request of his views on the war
and expansion.
al very much fear that the peace COM
m~issioners will be authorized to be salts
fed with the Island of Luzon, and while
1 would like to nave the whole group. yet
this will be practically the whole if they
Civ US a fair chance with our Yankee
methods. Luzon is about FIVE hundred
miles long by an average of fifty miles in
width. and Manila has a population OF
900. 900, with a bay that viii float the
navies of the world, being I25 miles in
circumference.
81 am in favor of holding every square
inch of soil which our brave soldiers and
sailors conquer anywher on the face Of
the globe. And especially is it the duty
of the United States to retain and occupy
all the captured possessions of Spain,
whether tina be in the West Indies, or in
the Pacific ocean, because in addition tc
aiding to its domain territory rich in great
possibilities for its future political and
commercial expansion, it will rescue from
opresiv bondage a peple who for -four
centuries hav ben chained to the car Of
an Imperialism that has striven to crush
evry nobl aspiration and to hinder a
advanc in social progress and hi c%iviliza-
ton.
I'VE must strik the letters from al
thes peple. Cubans, Porto Ricans, Philip.
pines and al, and let them breath freely
the invigorating air of American liberty,
which individualizes and xalts and xcites
to glorious achievements. If it be sedthat
tines people are not fit to appreciate and
enjoy the privileges of American citizen
ship and civilization it is hi time we were
teaching them to do SO.
80 far as Cuba and Porto Rico are
concerned their status is i~rrevocably mkt,
but as to the Philippines public opinion is
at sea. This Gums of a vel intended put
naro conception of the solemn duty and
tru destiny of the republic. The infant
nation that George Washington saw when
he wrote his immortal farewell adres has
grown to be a great giant, who's protect
ing arms stretching beyond the Monroe
vision is able to embrace the whole erth.
-Four hundred millions of human be-
ings under the calling yoke of falls social
and industrial system, hoary with gov
ernmental m~onstrosity and superstition,
bekon to US to go over and help them
Alredy a great Anglo-Saxon power has
cast its ankor in their domain andinvites
us to join them in relesing these victims
from their bondage of Asiatic s~tagnation
and decay.
shall we do SOP If so the first step
toward cooperation will be possession of
the Philippines wher we will be in close
tuch with each other and with the forces
and opportunities which are to direct and
control the commercial interests of the
world. 1 believe England and America
shud hav and are destined to possess the
whole erth, and the sooner they do it the
better for mankind. This ma sem greedy
but this is the kind of an American 1 am.
Let England and America march arm in
arm in the regeneration of civilization of
the peple now living in the darkness of
ignorance and despotism, and in de-
handing the open door everywhere for
the commerce of the world.
"CHARLEs BROADWAY RoUss"