The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-11-01


ward. has for centuries regulated er-
changes and built mp great cities In Its
course from tbs days Of Byzantium 10
thoss OF Londou. have said that IL al
ways flowed toward the West. Now mark
the coming change The American peo-
are building up an empiro-pardon the
word--on their Pacific coast. That coast,
with the exception Of British Columbia,
is all American. Thence they look out
across the Pacific, which seward, like
many another prophet crying In the wild
erness, declared thirty years ago would
be the future scene o. the great oommsrcs
and traffic Of the world. Now we have
come to the edge Of the PaciDc and VS. sse
what Seward meant. The cossi on the
otter side hiss become Of vital Interest to
Us, for we mem that part OF the mighty
river Of Esstern trade shall dow no long
or westward, but turn Its course TO the
Esst and pour throu ah the Golden Gate,
the deep waters OF Portland, and ere long
through the Nicaragua Canal into the
United Statss Our trade with China
has besn growing rapidly. We esS no
favofs; We only asr that we shall be ad-
mitted to that great market upon tbs
slme terms with the rest Of the world.
But within few years we have seen
HI ssla closing In upon the Chiness KIM
pirs. To her vast possessions In Europe
and Siberia she Is planning TO add the
Chin 81 Empire, with Its $50, 600, 00o PEG.
pie II she succeeds we shall not only be
excluded from those markets, hut We
shall stand face TO face with q power pm
trolling an extent of territory and q mass
of population tbs like OF which the
world has never seen. In the presence
of such q colossus OF despotism and mill
tary socialism the welfare OF every Tres
people is In danger. Long bsfore any
one dreamed that We should ever know
the philippines except by name. s,me
OF Us In washington had foresssn this
realized that ,oner or later the United
states In mere seif-defenoe would BE- oo-
l,gei to take an interest In the Chinese
q uestion and to insist that We should not
be shut out from those markets IL was
becoming apparent that the owners OF
{ ne side OF the Patitic could no longer re-
main Indifferent TO the fate Of the other
side. But how or In what way We were
TO assert or maintain our rights the
wis, Sc man ras not prepared to say.
sud- only came the Spanish War.
Dewey's fleet was ut Manila and We
were the masters Of the Philippines. We
were an Eastern power. We held the
We had our foothold on the Island Of Lu-
zop. do not want you to think that
exaggerats the Importance to the world
of this event, and that you may not
think SO l will ask you to bsar with me
while read q brief extract from q book
by very distinguished French econo.
mist and publioist, NJ. Gustave LIE Bon.
He knows but little OF the United States |;
his statements In regard to us are nearly
always grotesquely false; like most kuro.
peans, he 'iislikes us, but he has q pro-
found ssnse Of our power and meaning
In the world, and he Is very disintsr-
estei with esq. This is what he says:
90 al. hat
have forete,n, the conquest Of the Philip
pines by the United States. can alone re-
tard or prevent this absorption Of the
east by Russia, an absorption which
would be rulnous TO the west and would
mark the end Of the advances Of liberal
ideas in Europe. Tha conquest Of the
Philippines, so near to China, brings the
United States to the centre Of the Chi
nese question, upon the destinies Of
which feeble Spain could not have exer-
cised any influence. The influence Of the
United States. and that OF England, will
re establish, perhaps, the equilibrium Of
the SO lies, which were leaning more and
tainly at the dawn OF gigantic struggle
for the partition of the East, which.
without doubt, will MI the next century.
The disarmament which they propose to
US, not without some irony, imagine,
does not seem to he near at hand. The
people who should accept 1t woula make
some economies, undoubtedly, but they
would lose. and that, too, aftsr very
brief delay, existence ITSELF"
This French writer sees In our appear
ance In the Philippines not merely the
direct value OF the Islands to US. which
believe will be large when properly de-
velopei but the fact that our coming
there makes Us an Eastern power. and
that we may be able to save the East, not
solely for ourselves, but for France, and
for all tire nations Of Western Europe.
He ssus that by thro wing our wei ght
into the scales we may bs able TO keep
those vast regions and those teeming
millions not only open to our trade and
commerce. but open II the light OF
from sinking down into the darkness
OF the Russian winter. The master Of
Manila oan make terms with every Pow
or In the East and t,ose vast market
must be held open In the interests of
our indust y and our commerce, OF our
farmers aud our working men, to the free
oompst ton OF mankind, q contest in
which the genius of American enterprise
need fear no rival. l know it will be
said that these are Temots questions. 1t
Ger tsinly is not u ques ton OF today, or Of
next year, or of perhaps the next 20 years,
but It Is coming. and We mutt be pre-
pared. Now Is the accepted time. / do
uUt Whub tuib koucEutiou W AlA ~ VIC
task; i do not want our children and our
ohilren's children reaping q bittsr har-
vest which has grown from our mistakes
or our cowaIdice to look back to us and
say, 80, ye of little falth, what have ye
dons?" / want them to look back to us
as we look back to the men who made the
Constitution, not for - little states, but
with far look into the future. for the
government of nation one day to be
mast ,r of n continent want them to
tie abba to say of US that we saw that the
Unitei stat s could not be turned into q
gigantic Switzerland or Holland. that
1t could not be a hermit nation hiding q
feeble body within o huge
she'll; that 1t oould not be shut up and
kept from Its share of the worlds COM
merce unit 1t was smothered by n Power
hostile To 1t in every conception Of justice
and liberty when IL might have prevented
such fate.
The dinner closed with the singing of