The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-15
ANTI-IMP ERIALISTS
MEET.
WE'RE MADE BY PROM
INENT SPEAKERS.

the Anti-Imperialists-D
Kind of Expansion However.
speech by Congressman Lentz OF
Ohio.
Philadelphia, Dec. IAN anti-imperial-
list mass meeting of the American League
of Philadelphia was held at the Academy
of Music here tonight.
Prominent among the speakers were
Congressman John J. Lentz of Ohio and
Charles A Towne
George Mercer, president of the Philadel-
phia league, made the opening address.
He said in part:
zone hundred years ago tonight George
Washington passed into the silent land.
In the city which was at that time the
capital of the nation we have come to-
gether to honor his memory and to make
a declaration of renewed allegiance to the
political principles which he advocated.
Here, where he presided over the deliber-
atoms of the convention which framed
our Constitution, we have assembled to
insist that the provisions of that Constitu-
ton be kept inviolate. Here, where he
lived when President of these United
States, we desire to measure by his stand
ard the acts of the President of to-day.
Here, where the Declaration of Independ-
ence was framed, we purpose to take in
creased devotion to the cause for which
he gave the last fun measure of deVo-
ton
The supporters of the new national pol
icy tell us that the views of WASHINGTON
We're we'll enough for the day OF small
beginnings In which he lived, but that the
nation has outgrown that and can no lon
ger pursue the paths he marked out
There are some, however, who still find
in his writings the eternal truth and in his
example the highest inspiration. While
we have no wish to magnify the author
ity of any one man, however great, we do
intend to hold fast to the principles of the
Father of the Republic. Let that nation
beware which abandons the ideals of its
national life. All history shows that to be
the first step in its decline and fall The
poet Longfellow, writing for the individ-
ual, enumerates
1.-THE hardening of the heart that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth"
as among the things that
must be tramDled down
Beneath our feet if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain"
And so it will be with our republic. "The
| longing for ignoble things" such as mill
| tary glory and worldwide dominion.
''The strife for triumph more than truth, -
which would keep our flag flying with in
fanny when it might be hauled down with
| honor,
'if we will but tread
| Beneath our feet these deeds of shame
we may yet regain among the nations of
| the earth the fair renown" we had won
| by a century of popular government -
| sicrfaf IF aFfafr af1f III a Ia
which made our land a shining light
among democracies.
1T may sound paradoxical, but it Is
| merely truth to say that no one believes
in expansion more thoroughly than do the
| anti-imperalists. The expansion we be-
lieve in is not the expansion of Ameri-
| can dominion, but the expansion of Amer
| lean thought; not the subjugation of the
| Filipinos by force of arms, but the recog-
| milton of them as allies and as brothers
| not such expansion as that of England in
| India or South Africa, where her flag has
been a flag of blood, but as that in the
self-governing commemorative of Canada
and Australasia. where her flag has been
| the flag of liberty and democracy.
"The expansion we believe in is the ex-
pansion America has had in days gone
I by, when her sons have gone westward to
| build homes where they might live and
die and where, dying, they might leave
| their children; not expansion of barbaric
| dominion in tropic lands, where as Benja-
min Kidd says, "the white man lives and
works only as a diver lives and works I'M
der water" II is in The nobler and higher
| sense that an English historian has spoken
of Washington as the "Expander of Eng
| land" Washington did not expand, but
curtailed, the dominion Of England, just
| as we should like to curtail the dominion
of the United States, so that it should new
| ha
Washington expanded England; ne made
England greater by taking away a part;
his abiding glory was won by delivering
the daughter-land from the injustice of
the Wonderland and thus he made it pos
sible for the common speech and the COM
mon law Of England, with the precious
principles of Magma Charla and the Bill
of Rights, 10 win for themselves a wids T
empire than that of George the Third.
There is no expansion of land by the
mere holding of a foreign nation under
a rule ii hates. What is won by the sword
must be kept by the sword. This false ex-
pansion which The President is trying to
accomplish in the Philippines means the
necessity of those military Establishments
which, Washington tells US, under any
form of government are inauspicious 10
liberty, and which are 10 be regarded as
particularly hostile to republican liberty"
Congressman Lentz said in part:
I'VE in our EFFORT to initiate and pattern
after Europe should not forget that the
empire of the Romans has come to naught,
and let us not forget that the Mohamme-
dan advanced from province to empire
with sword and fire and yet came to
naught Spain in all her pomp and in all
her wealth, weakened herself destroyed
herself, when she became vainglorious. 1t
is said that history makes men wise. Is 1t
possible that this administration can learn
nothing from the history of other nations2
Is 1t possible that this administrator has
mapped out a career of Imperialism in
support of which it does not dare cite a
page of history nor quote a principle from
the philosophy of any Of the founders and
builders of the American republic. AS for
me and for mine, l insist upon it, that if
we have millions and billions of treasure
and taxes, and thousand and thousands OF
men to be disposed of, let us apply this
gigantic enginery and power in a school
of universal education. in the government
tai ownership of a postal telegraph and
telephone; in the construction of magnid-
cent leYee systems for the Mississippi
and o4haFs rivers and fharQnV redeem