The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-02
YEAR REVIEWED
The Story of 1898 for the
United States.
(From the New WORK Trihune )


Foreign war and domestic welfare make
up the story of 1898 for the United States.
All other topics and doings are subsidiary
to these. We have fought the sixth for
eign war in our national history, and the
first for fifty years-a war that will ever
rank as one of the three great wars in
Its lasting results, in the history of the
North American continent. We have eff
tected great expansion of our national
possessions, and a commensurately great
development of our long-established ma
tional policy. In peaceful negotiation and
IN the rude shock of war our flag has car
ried to distant lands and planted there,
even into the other hemisphere and into
the geographical system OF another con-
tinent.
Our navy and army have proved their
unsurpassed efficiency. Our diplomacy
has shown itself match for that of the
old world with all its masterful tradi-
tons. The work of May day morning
transformed the United States from a
merely local power of unknown and dis
regarded potency into world power,
universally recognized to be of the first
magnitude in both peace and war With
all this we have had year of all but I'M
lprecedented prosperity. Industries have
revived, trade has developed, the volume
of business has expanded to dimensions
which staggered the imagination; pro-
ducts OF all kins flowing forth to all the
world as never before and the gold of the
world lowing into our bursting treasu-
RES. That is the record of 1898 Add to
that the final passing of all sectional
estrangement and such perfectness of
union among the states as never was
known before, and we have a chapter of
american history that for splendor and
5000 significance stands unsurpassed in
all our annals.
Abroad the year has been full of more
IMAM ordinary interest. Exactly eighteen
hundred years after the first great Span
iard became emperor of the whole civil
ized world the Spanish empire has van
ished, from the face of the globe Just
-FOUR hundred years after the great Span
lsh admiral first planted the Spanish flag
upon the mainland of America that flag
is withdrawn forever from the western
hemisphere. Just three hundred wears
after Philip II surrendered his vast en-
pre- to the feebler hands Of his son that
realm Is reduced to smaller compass than
L mad known for many a reign before
Phlllps far-reaching conquests. Just two
HHunore9 years after the sovereigns of
Great Britain and France bargained to-
gether for the partition of Spain the
spanish empire is partitioned without
French or British aid by a lower of
which these monarchs had no knowledge.
IN It's immediate changes of the maps and
International relations of the world the
Spanlsh-American war was one of the
ultimate possibilities it vies with any that
mas been fought since the British and
spanish races first grappled in a death
lock. The work that Drake began at ca
diz was completed by Dewey and Samp-
son at Manila and Santiago, and it may
well be that the last act will prove as full
OF moment as was the first.
The great empire which is our kin has
mafked the year in worthy fashion. Brit
ish authority in the affairs of Europe has
been asserted as it had not been for MANY
fa
ago or the decline of the British empire
Inc centenary of Britains one alliance
with Russia has been marked with such
an alliance of spirits and purposes be-
tween Britain and America as never was
known before. The centenary of Aboukir
Omdurman and Fashoda.
Inc centenary Of the great Irish rebel
lion is marked with a paciffcation and
prosperity Of that island unmatched since
before the Stuarts' days. OF a truth. the
old lion is very much alive. The history
of France for 1898 is written in the one
Word-Dreyfus. Agitation over that un-
nappy case has dominated all the national
IRE Of the republic, and even menaced its
security. The German emperor has cele.
orated the eighth centenary of the first
ing blood brotherhood with the direct
descendant Of the very Moslem chieftains
, against whom the crusaders warred, anG
ms empire has marked the seven-hun-
dredth anniversary of the Guelph anc
Ihlpelllne feud by an ominous recrudes.
cence of factional animosuies Exactly
SIX hundred years ago Hapsburg first
rms year the latest Hapsburg emperor
mas celebrated his fiftieth jubilee an6
mourned the murder of his consort; he
has seen and still sees his realm convulseC
with internal dissensions, and enters She
twilight of life with the knowledge that
only his PEI personal influence dams back the
deIuge. The Russian autocrat has in one
breath proclaimed practical protectoratC
over half of China and in the next de.
plored the aggresslveness of other powers
with one hand signed rescript for uni.
versal disarmament and with the other ar
edict lor unprecedented increase of his
own og sa i9rcesi Sweden and Norway grow
death Of her good queen; Holland ac
Claims the accession of her fair Orange.
Blossom; Italy struggles with the burdens
OF long ,innlsgovernment: Greece is rising
} mad war with Turkey: the long agony NJ
Crete ends In peace, and happiness al
. USner states pursue the checkered tenor OF
tnelr way without an incident of wide sig,
: The two colossal figures of Bismarck
ana Gladstone have disappeared; theil
passing so long discounted that when Ii
} worlds progress. They had already a ID be- be-,
come historic characters. Literature. sci.
ence and the arts have produced nothina
OF epoch-making Importance yet have
mace steady and gratifying growth Il
", VII pc, Tor It's wars and diplomacy, fol
so 80 - : 90 p u tHe Worio map ana of the
stalus OF the nations, that 1898 will be re-
5 nemDered. In such remembrance If will
rank among the noteworthy years of the
century, and indeed, of the Christian
era Nor viii the verdict of posterity bt
an untaVorable one. Regrets and zeal
ousles and antagonisms have arisen. ant
may Tor time abide. But the final iudg.
nlent VIII be that it has been a good wear
mat the world has grown better that The
trend Of humanity, individually and col.
lectlvely, has been forward and upward
ana mat the vast changes that have oc.
CURED and the mighty forces that have
peen developed are, on the whole 70,
So0d and for Righteousness and for Inc
r highest welfare of mankind. ''''