The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-05
MONTANA CITIES CELEBRATE
WITH PATRIOTIC ENTHUSIASM
Missoua Covered Herself With Blaze of Glory-An
Immense Crowd -Bozeman, Billings and Hamilton
Made the Day Memorable One Eloquent
Speeches Were Delivered.

| establishment They suddenly awak-
ened to the fact that a nation which
can make the best locomotives and
threshing machines may also be able
to make the best battleships and guns.
The man behind the gun in our navy
is the pride of every true American
heart. but the gun behind which he
stands and the ship that carries both
must also be remembered.
These are the facts that arrested Eu-
ropean thought and forced the rulers
and statesmen of that continent to a
full recognition of Americas status as
a world power"
Hence it is that in certain quarters
we hear unkind and jealous express
sions, while from others come words Of
effusive friendship and proffers of al
lance. We are told that the time has
come for us to emerge from our seclu-
sion, to abandon the policy of nom
interference in foreign affairs and that
we should take up the white mans
burden"-whatever that may mean.
We are advised that we owe something
to the world. and that we have our du-
ties to perform.
Debt to the World.
Certainly we owe something to the
world and just as certainly We have
our duties to perform. But what do
we owe, anu WHal are tHe duties WHICH
we should performs These are the
questions. Does the answer come that
we should join with other great powers
in extending the domain of civilization?
If so. l would point to what we have
already done. I would remind them
that there is not a country in Europe,
possibly not in the world, that has not
been liberalized and civilized by the
example Of America. The French rev.
Al he if,,r, oil nf Of
our own. The excuses of that unhappy
movement We're due to the nature of
the French people, wrought up by a
thousand years Of outrage and wrong.
Since then revolution has followed rev.
olution, but for q years the third
French republic has withstood the
strain of every crisis and now seems
destined to endure.
Nothing could more forcefully illus
trate the advance of the French people
toward perfect republicanism than the
recent action in the Dreyfus case. A
hundred years ago had a humble Off
Ger of the army been tried for a heinous
crime and unjustly convicted the ma
ton at large would never have be-
slowed a second thought upon it. If it
seemed likely to cause the government
any serious annoyance, the man would
have been quietly beheaded, or stran-
gled in his dungeon. and that would
have ended it forever. But now We
find the whole nation shaken from CEN
ter to circumference at the thought OF
an innocent man languishing on Devils
island. and the great court of cessation
ordering a new trial of the charge.
Even Spain has tried the experiment
of a republican government, and it only
failed because the people were not ripe
for such a change. To the south of us
no less than 16 republics with total
area of about 100000 square miles
have been formed within the century,
and they all have been modelled to some
extent upon our own.
And mark well now what I say: Had
it not been for the Monroe doctrine;
had not the United States stood guard
over those countries ready to fight
their battles if need be. in the days of
their infancy and weakness, they could
not have maintained themselves
against European aggression for
single decade. Is this doing nothing
for civilization? Is this carrying no
part of the white mans burden?" Is
t nothing to throw our strong, protect
ing arm over a. territory large enough
to furnish a comfortable home to every
man, woman apd child in the world and
dedicate that territory to free govern
ment?
It's Not CIaptrap.
And this Us no Fourth of July clap
rap, my friends. 1t is undlsputed his
DRY that ought to be familiar to every
in the land. Look for mo-
nent at the Macmillan episode in Mex
CO. Revolutions We're frequent there.
and Louis Napoleon thought it well to
give Mexico a good civilized govern
ment. The Napoleonic idea of good
government has always been of the i'm
perialistic sort: so an empire was set
up in Mexico and Macmillan was
placed upon the throne, a French army
Deing kept there to sustain him.
This was during our civil war, when
We We're engaged in a life and death
struggle for our own national existence.
But when 1t was over, almost before the
moke of the conflict had cleared away,
he French government was peremp-
orliy ordered to withdraw it's army
rom Mexico and it obeyed. By that
ict of the United States two empires
we're destroyed-that of Macmillan in
Mexico, and the infinitely greater one of
Napoleon III. in France But it is not
necessary for us to go back to the days
If our civil strife. We need only glance
1t the late encounter with Spain. There
vas war in which we expended hun
lreds of millions in treasure and sac
'ificed thousands of precious lives. And
or what purpose? Not in a spirit of
conquest, not Tor territorial aSSran-
Element; not for commercial advant-
ige For none of these things, but
solely for the Humanitarian purpose of
giving to the long suffering Cubans the
nestlmable blessings of free govern
ment and peace.
And still we are told by countries that
never yet struck a blow for liberty,
whose whole history is one long story
Of conquest, spoilation and wrong, that |
We should take up the white mans |
burden, and do something for clviliza-
ton" Take up the white mans bur
den!' 1t has a beautiful sound in |
poetry, but looking behind the mere |
rhythmic sentiment we may dimly see |
the outlines of a policy which, if gem |
orally acted upon during the last one |
hundred years, would have swept out
Of existence every republic on the face
Of the earth and established an en- |
pire in its stead.
Eternal Vigilance.
/ am neither a pessimist nor an
ilarmist. l do not profess to fear that |
he days of the republic are numbered.
But I do know that eternal vigilance |
s the price of liberty" and I believe |
hat the greatest danger which con |
ronts us to-day is the spirit of mill
xx,hi haS