The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-17
Lewis, Reilly 4 Davies,
la AND 11e WYOMING AVENUE.

are taken from an abstract in the New
York Times of a recent summary OF
Finance and Commerce. issued by the
Bureau of Statistics. National interest
demands that we do all that can be le-
ultimately and honorably done to protect
and to promote this growing trade. Our
manufacturers no longer find an ade-
quate market in our own land. The ra-
pidity and economy of production due to
machinery and to skill in using 1t glut the
market and cause periodical stoppages or
industry and consequent distress. Our
Pacific coast wheat is sent either across
the continent or around the cape to have
its market price determined for US in
Liverpool. We have breadstuffs for the
underfed of China; we have the ingenuity
which will enable us to share with Europe
in furnishing her the long needed inple-
nIents of civilized life; and we are from
three to four thousand miles nearer to
ker by sea than any competing European
country. Why should not We share with
European countries in competing for her
trade?
But it is not interest only which sum-
mons us. In this. as in many other cases,
true self-interest and a true phlan-
thropy plead the same cause and guide in
the same direction. Grant that we can
learn something from China certainly
she can learn much from us. Bibles and
missionaries and churches a1e. we be-
lieve, essential to any true and lasting
civilization; but Bibles and missionaries
and churches are not alone enough. China
needs more than the advantages of ma
terial civilization. but she certainly needs
these advantages. Let a single illustra-
tion suffice: Charity can ameliorate fa-
mines, but only commerce can prevent
them. If China is ever to have the ad-
vantages of an Occidental civilization, If
she is ever to have what improved meth
DDS OF agriculture, commerce, and manu-
features confer she must obtain them by
coming into the commercial fellowship of
the world. And America is her nearest
civilized neighbor. The highest humanity
as we'll as our most evident sclf-intorest
demand that We be neighborly by uniting
with England in demanding for China the
advantages of 1.-The open DOOR" and in
generously competing with England in
entering 1t with our industrial and COM
mercial life.
If We are to do this, we must have in
the Eastern hemisphere more than a
"coaling-station." We must have some
ports under the American flag and recog-
nizing its supremacy. We must not be
dependent on the courtesy of other pow
ers for a right TO live in the East. We
must not have again to choose in time of
war, as we had when England rightly or
dered our fleet out of Hong Kong, be-
tween sailing back to San Francisco and
winning port for ourselves by our guns.
This time we could do It, because our
enemy had a port and we were-strong
enough to take II from hin.. The next
time we might have no port convenient,
and we should be obliged to leave Ameri-
can interests unprotected. Look at the
map again. Put up a flag at the Ha-
waiian Islands, the Carolines, the La
drones, the Philippines. Put it up also.
where it is now flying, at the Samoan Is
lands and the Marianne Islands. What
does that flag mean? 1t means pro-
tected highway between America and
the far East-far no longer-and a rea-
sonable protection to American commerce
In its honorable competition with the
other Christian nations of the world, in
the endeavor to give TO the half-civiized
populations of the East the boon of mod
ern civilization through the ministry or
commerce.