The Topeka state journal., 1899-10-25
WHY AN ExPANsIONIsT.
G. @. Clemens Tells Why He Opposes
Populist Leaders.

G. c. Clemens, who has apparently
become the head of the insurrection in
the Populist ranks against making an
ti-expansion the battle cry of the party
in next years campaign. says that ex-
pansicn is the natural order of things
and that it will do no good to fight
against it. He says that the large ma
tiOns will continue to absorb the weak
until there are only three or four ma
tions doing business on this mundane
sphere, and he thinks the world will
be better off for it. Expansion, he says,
is simply the trust problem applied to
nations. This is an age of combina-
tions and the smaller nations are alb
sorbed by the larger, by mutual con-
sent if the smaller nation is agreed, by
force if not.
In speaking of his views today, Mr..
Clemens said:
MY refusal to oppose expansion is
not altogether sentimental. 1t is large
ly philosophical, although confess that
when there is war l wish to see my side
win. AS to anti-expansiOR, feel some
of old GamaliePs caution about COM
batting Christianity: Lest haply We be
found even to be fighting against God
For 1 am certain that expansion is part
of the preparation for that
81 'Far-off divine event to which the
whole creation moves
what is called expansion is really
concentration. and concentration is ma
times. Population tends to concentrate
in the cities and all protest has been
in vain. Vain have been lamentations
over the concentration of once inde-
pendent workmen in factories and
shops; vain the bitter denunciatiOns of
the concentration of wealth into a few
hands; vain all attempts to prevent the
concentration of industries in trusts
The concentration of all the peoples of
the world into three or four great ma
tions is of piece with these move
ments; it Obeys the same irresistible
law; and it will heed as little the weep
ing and the gnaShing of teeth of those
who bewail the departure of the times
that were.
Mature is never immoral. She never
sins. With Cousin, 1 believe in the
morality of victory. The conQueror does
but execute the DEGREES of the highest
tribunal in the universe Nature takes
large views. She can wait in silence for
the centuries to vindicate her deeds and
her plans. Nothing in history can ap-
peal more powerfully to a manly mind
than the story of the patriotic herOiSm
of the Jews in their long, hopeless
struggle with Rome. Over and over,
under intrepid leaders, they threw
themselves upon the imperial legions
until Judea was one vast battlefield
one vast burial ground of the brave.
Even now, after the lapse of twenty
centuries, who does not thrill as he
reads the account Of that conflict IN
which herOism became commonplace?
But the Jewish nation ceased to be.
Jerusalem is no more a seat of empire.
And today we can see the hand of des-
tiny in that fall Had not the legiOns
made Palestine a conquered province Of
the Roman Empire, the voice of Christ
would never have been heard outside
Judea; Christianity would not now be
making conquest of the world. We rec
ognize now that civilization demanded
that Rome should rule the ancient
world and weld all peoples into one
mighty empire.
''But the ancient concentration was
purely political; it was neither ethical
nor economic. 1t was based upon no
social philosophy And civilization was
arrested at it's noon and descended into
the darkness of a thousand years. To-
day, concentration is but slightly politi-
cal; it is economic and ethical. The
sublime social philosophy which Roman
expansion enabled to reach the whole
world, now, not 1atently. but conscious
ly, dominates the new concentration
of the peoples, and civn1zatiOn, en-
nobled by that philosophy, is to live and
not die. Even the sincere protests
against expansion are born of the very
spirit of brotherhood which is to rule
when expansion shall have its course
as heaven has decreed.
LAS to the Declaration of Independ-
ence, who but the socialists believe in
its preamble? Our statesmen have kept
It carefully tied up for use only on the
Fourth of July. For the greater part
of a century, with that prophetic pre-
anble before US, we blasphemed its
SDlTlC
slave child from the slave mothers
breast and sold them into eternal sepa-
ration. Have we pracuced that pream-
BILE on the Indian? Were it to be ac-
tual law today where would Carnegie
and some others be? Were that pre-
ambIe needed, would the shadow of our
flag fall upon single abode of poverty?
Would there be a wage system or a
working class? Are all Americans born
free and equal? Is there no difference
between the rags upon which pOverty'S s
babe fails into its first slumber and the
silken couch which receives the new
born child of wealth. Would poor
houses exist and be dreaded did we
practice the Declaration Of Independ-
ence? Does our government derive all
its just powers from the consent of the
the governed? Go ask the convicts in
yOnder penitentiary if they consented
to the power exercised over them
''Give to Americans the full benefit
Of the Declaration of Independence, and
we need not worry about Imperialism;
it would be an Imperialism for all men
to welcome, and all the weary and
heavy laden of all the earth would kiss
our flag. Alas, are Carnegie, Sterling
Morton, Edward Atkinson, Thomas B.
Reed and the other expansionists
enthusiastic champions of a DecIara-
tiOn of Independence for such domestic
use?
sOf all human kind, the socialist
alone has a political philosophy. With
all others, craftsmanship is a game of
chance The Socialist, grounded in a
philosophy deduced from a scientific
study of history, calmly welcomes what
makes the thoughtless race. Amidst
the wreck of old systems, he alone il
serene; and in the darkest hour of the
worlds night, he turns his glad face to
the east and says: Behold, it is near
ing dawn! "
A Gift From Rockefeller.
Cleveland, o.. Oct. 25.-The agent of