Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-15
Speech of WhitelaW Reid
at Miami University
DIAMOND CELEBRATION
This Country Will CiviliZe the 1nhabl-
tantS of Our New POSSESSIONS
Effects of the Late War are Plainly
Shown to the Students.

| Oxford, Ohio, June 15.-The culmina ton
! of the diamond anniversary jubilee OF
Miami university occurred today when
a class of is men was graduated and the
Hon. Whitelaw Reid of the class of 1896
delivered the commencement address
upon Our New Duties This event
marked an era in this famous institution
It's growth recently has been phenomenal
The grounds and buildings and equip
ment have been improved, over 100000
being spent within three years. The sons
of Miami congregated to do honor to the
new Miami today and never in its history
! has there been such a large percentage
, of it's graduates present as upon mis-
occasion.
| Mr.. Reid in his address said:
with the ratification of the peace of
Paris, our continental republic has
stretched it's wings over the West Indies
and the east. 1t is a fact and not a
| theory that confronts us. We are actually
and now responsible, not merely to the
inhabitants and to our own people. but
| in International law to the commerce, to
the civilization of the world for the
preservation of the order and the pro-
lection of life and property in Cuba, in
Porto Rico, in Guam and in the Philip
/ pine archipelago. Shall we acquit our
selves like men in the discharge Of this
| immense duty or shall we fall to quarrel
! ing with each other like boys as to
whether such duty is a good or bad
thing for the country and as to what 1t
fastened upon us?
| Nothing in human power can ever re-
store the United States to the position
\ it occupied the day before congress
plunged us into the war with Spain or
fcnable us to escape what that war en-
/ tailed. No matter what we wish, the old
continental isolation is gone forever
/ Whithersoever we turn now, we must do
it with the burden of our late acts to
carry the responsibility of our new posi-
/ tion to assume.
/ But when the stars and stripes at last
bring the order and peaceful security
they typify instead of want and disorder
with all the concomitants of savage war
| fare over which they now wave-we shall
| then be confronted with the necessity of
a policy for the future Of these distant
regions. 1t is a problem that calls for
our soberest, most dispassonate and
most patriotic thought. The colleges and
! the educated classes generally should
make it a matter of cOnscience-painS-
takingly considered on all its sides with
reference to international law, the bur-
dens Of sovereignty, the rights and in
terests of native tribes and the legitimate
demands of civilizaton--to find first our
national duty and then our national in
terest which it is also q duty for our
! statesmen to protect.
| we have reached two conclusions that
ought to clear the air and simplify the
/ problem that remains. First we have
| ,r,1s it1la mt tn md
govern new territory absolutely at will
! according to our Selise OF right and duty
| whether as dependencies, as colonies
as a prOtectOrate. Second, as the legiti-
mate and necessary consequence of our
iOWn previous acts, it has become our
national and international duty to do it.
Developments Of power and trade are
the least of the advantages we may hope
fully expect. The faults in American
character and life which the little Ameri-
cans tell us prove the people fit for these
duties are the very faults that will be
cured by them. The recklessness and
self f-sufliciency Of youth must disappear.
Great responsibilities, suddenly devolved,
must sober and elevate now, as they have
always done in natures originally bad,
throughout the whole history of the
world.
The new interests abroad must COM
pei an improved foreign service. ON great
occasions and in great fields our diploma
tic record ranks with the best in the world
At the same time, in fields less under the
public eye, our foreign service has been
haphazard and at the best and often bad
beyond belief-ludicrous and humFliating
The harm thus wrought to our national
good name and the positive injury to our
trade have been more than we realized.
We cannot escape realizing them now and
when the American people wake up 10 a
wrong they are apt to right it.
More important still should be the inn
provement in the general public service
at home and in our new possessions New
duties must bring new methods. Ward
politics We're banished from India and
Egypt as the price of successful admin
istration ard they must be secluded from
Porto Rico. and Luzon. The practical
common sense Of the American people will |
soon see that any other course is ruinous |
Gigantic British interests will reinforce
the theorists in favor of a reform that |
sh all really elevate and purify the civil !
service.
Hand in hand with these benefits to |
ourselves which il is the duty Of public |
servants to secure, give benefits to our |
new wards and benefits TO mankind /!
There. then, is what the United States is |
to stand for in all the resplendant future
the rights and interests of its own gov
ernment; the general welfare of its own |
people: the extension of ordered liberty |
in the dark places Of the earth; the spread |
of civilization and religion and the con-