The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-01-06
THE EVENT OF THE YEAR.

| some OF the events of the year, and re.
ferring especially to the war in Cuba,
it's results and probable bearing upon
the future, it says:
1T was a year of surprises, No
heavenly portents presaged the start
lings events that emblazoned it's
chronicles They seemed to have sud-
denly sprung from the circumstances
OF the time In fact they were the Gull
mination of great secular movement
which reaches far back in history, of
which the phase most closely related to
the Cuban crises is that irrepressible
conflict between the old and outworn
forms of medieval despotism trans
planted by Spain in the pride of her
power centuries ago to her colonies in
the New World and the Democratic
aspirations for liberty which received
their inspirations from the vigorous and
progressive Democracy of the North
American republic, and which ended
long ago in the emancipation of all con-
tinental America from the Spanish
yoke. The Monroe doctrine, proclaim
ed in the midst of that struggle of the
South American colonies of Spain for
deliverance from her rule, was declara
ton to the world that this republic
stood sponsor for liberty in the New
World against any fresh invasion by
Old World tyrannies. Of all her once
vast colonial possessions nothing re-
manned to Spain of Importance except
Cuba and Porto Rico, in the West In
dies, and the Philippines, in the Orient.
Here, untaught by misfortunes and
deaf to all the warning of experience,
she continued the same system of op
preston and plumber from which her
other colonies had successfully
revolted."
1.-The war was we'll worth far more
than all it cost, if only for the magnif-
cent manifestations of patriotism with
which the peopleof the South and North
alike responded to the call of the presi-
dent for volunteers If only that it put
an end forever to sectional divisions and
antipathies in the United States and
united the American people without
distinction of section or party in COM
mon sentiment of loyalty to the flag of
fha nd ho inf
a common enthusiasm for the cause of
humanity and civilization, for which it
stood in the war with Spain. 1t is not
in it's numbers or wealth that people
are great, but in their patriotic devo
tion to their country and in the national
ideals which inspire them.
1.-The war was worth far more than all
it cost in it's impressive demonstration
of the remarkable efficiency of our navy
and army, and of the disciplined valor
of our seamen and soldiers, and for its
splendid examples of individual hero
ism. 1t is not in it's ornaments that a
nation is strong, but in the character of
the men behind its guns "
1--WE have assumed heavy burden of
responsibility in undertaking to give
them just and stable governments and
to educate them as rapidly possible
into the capability of governing them
selves.
I'VE cannot rightly discharge this
task without purifying and exalting
our civil service and our standards of
government. And we believe that the
richest of all our compensations will be
in the reflex elevation of our standards
of government at home in trying to give
good government to these peoples over
the seas.
what we shall gain in the future in
the expansion of our commerce and
merchant marine in the extension of
our sovereignty over the Philippines
and in more intimate commercial re'a-
tions with Cuba furnishes chapter of
speculations upon which it is too soon
to enter But there is every reason to
believe that the possession of the Philip
pines and of Hawaii will be the step
ping stones to an extension of our
Asiatic commerce. the proportions of
which cannot now be foreseen or esti
mated. The war and its results have
advanced the United States to new
stage in the historic evolution of its
ultimate place among the nations They
have put it in train of being without
question the dominant commercial
power in the Pacific ocean. They have
given it new and commanding inter
est in the future of China and Japan.
Europe will have to reckon with it in
its schemes of territorial aggression in
that quarter. The American republic
entered into the war with Spain prac-
tically second or third rate power,
and defenseless before strong military
and naval power so far as it's coast
cities were concerned 1t came out of
it ready to take its place as one of the
first class powers of the world y
Harry WatterSOn wants Dawav RI