The record-union., 1899-08-31
REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE"


mucca, said that this nation must
choose between being a republic or an
empire" Why? Who is putting any
such necessity before it except Mr.
Bryan? The nation is a republic To
it's present state of grandeur strength
and beauty of proportion it has grown
as a republic, and such it will remain.
All this chatter on the part of such
calamityites as Mr.. Bryan whose mis-
sion in life appears to be the discovery
of bogie men. is verriest twaddle. What
does he mean by empire, any how?
A country ruled by an Emperor,
a titled .aristocracy, and dominated by
the personal whim of a potentate? If
so what warrant has he for saying
that there is any tendency in that di-
rection?
Fact is the nation was never more
firmly rooted in love for free govern
ment, self-government. or more firmly
based upon the substructure of free
dom, than it is to-day. Does Mr.. Bryan
sincerely believe that the people of
this nation are seriously thinking upon
change in the form Of government,
the setting up of ruler correspondent
TO that Of Russia or Persia or even
Germany? 1t cannot be that he en-
tertains any such belief We prefer to
give him the higher credit Of being a
demagogue playing to a suppositious
gallery and posing as a modern savior
Of states for partisan effect
But if Mr. Bryan means by IAN en-
pire" power in government. in expanse
of territory, advance in commercial
strength, growth of intelligence, place
ment of the nation in proper condition
among the great states of the world,
supremacy in trade. brilliancy in gen
ius, progress along all lines of intelli-
gence, an uplift of manhood and inde-
pendence, broadness of opportunity,
expansion of the limits of free speech,
free thought and the beneficence of the
spread of American institutions. then
we confess that we are becoming a
magnificent empire. But it is as an i'm
perial republic, such as Colonel Baker,
an orator before whose effulgence the
rushlight OF Mr.. Bryan goes out, forty
one years ago prophetically saw and
proclaimed in his famous grafton on
the laying of the Atlantic cable. He
then declared 1--WE stand upon the
threshold of new discoveries, and at
the entrance to a more imperial do
minion.9
No, there is no choosing before this
people, They are no more threatened
with monarchy and imperialism than
they are with being blotted out by re-
turn before its time of Enckes comet.
They are as safe from Imperialism as
they are from the infiction of the fad
of is to 1 as advocated by Mr.. Bryan
after most of his disciples have con
ceded it to be a dead issue.
Certainly we have an imperial realm,
unconsciously perhaps we have moved
forward to an Imperialism over which
the genius Of free government presides
loftily as a queen in her own right.
It is an empire already of intelligence,
of discovery. of enlightenment, of liter
ature, inventive skill. commercial ac-
complishment and undiminished free
dom for the citizens of the first, great
est and most enduring of all repub-
lies
We are an empire Of pride, an i'm
perial state Of just ambitions and laud-
able emulation. Our nation is a re-
public whose heart is sound and gives
no beat responsive to a thought of
monarchy or kingdom. Mr.. Bryan de-
clares that an imperial policy cannot
be defended on any grounds. Surely
not. No one has attempted it, no one
will essay the task. But what Mr..
Bryan denominates an imperial policy
is but the logical sequence of the ire
sistible and beneficent forces which are
moving the American republic on to
ends that will give freer play and
broader scope to her institutions and
make the lamp of liberty shed its eff
fulgent rays over a greater body of
human beings.
The conclusion of Mr.. Bryan at Win
nemucca appears to have been an i'm
potent struggle to define an imperial
policy. for it ended in the declaration
that it means a standing army of TO-
600 men to cost the people $100,0 600.
He measures patriotism and national
safety then, by the dollar mark ignor-
ing the fact that with a standing army
of 10000 men the republic would have
a far smaller and less costly armed
force in proportion to population, in
terests, government property, military
posts, territorial area and coast line
to protect than it had the day Mr..
Bryan first saw the light.
Mr.. Bryan has moved westward into
California with his bogie man and will
undoubtedly expose him to view at sew
eral points in this State. But he will
frighten no one. His patent ghost will
awaken no terrors. and his doleful fore
casts viii cause no cheeks to pale
The Democrats of Ohio in State con-
vention yesterday went the whole
hog" They swallowed the entire pro-
gram prepared for them, denounced the
effort of the Government to suppress
any ambiguity expressed the idea that
the war is unholy and ought to be
brought to an end, and an apology for