The times., 1899-03-06
The Bugbenr of Fnta,i.m.

A bewildered correspondent of the New
York Evening Post seems to have awak
ened from sort OF Rip Van Winkle sleep
and not to know just what is the matter
with him. He writes long letter to the
Post declaring that the whole country,
the President included seems committed
to the policy of having no policy" He
mildly expresses surprise that the states
man of today should regard events as in
evitable and submit himself to destiny in
stead of making up his mind what ought
TO happen and going to bring it about.
He seems to think that we, as a nation,
are swept into current fatalism, slightly
disguised by the term destiny" And
finally, he emits this wall of foreboding:
Has it really come to pass that men OF re-
spectahility and moral integrity suffer them
| selves TO be swept blindly on by the current oi
| events, and imagine that in doing they are
performing 4 religious or political duty Have
We so soon forgotten the glory oi the individual
| j. it no longer true that mans function IS to
| think, TO act, 10 plan, to lead?
| Now. the real truth of the matter is that
| we are coming to an age in which indi-
viduality will probably play a larger part
than ever before in determining the policy
of nations. Indications of this were shown
very clearly in the Spanish war
1t was not fate alone that gave us the
Philippines; ii was fate assisted by Dewey
Of course, if the Philippines had not been
there, or if they had not belonged 10
Spain, or if Dewey had been somewhere
else than at Hongkong at that particular
time, or if the whole course of the devel-
different. so that her navy came some
where near being equal TO ours the victory
at Manila might not have occurred. That
was destiny's part of the affair. On the
other hand all the circumstances might
have been precisely the same and if Dewey
had been a timid man. or if he had not
known just when and where to strike, or il
the officers and men of the fleet had not
been imbued with a heartfelt desire TO do
their duty, the result would most assured
ly have been very unlike what it was. N
other crises of the war the same principle
holds. Fate. together with individual ef-
fort, has changed our policy in a year.
In fact, it was not destiny that caused this
war in the beginning, as the Posts"
correspondent would know If he had not
been asleep. There was a very lively con-
test between the peace-at-any y-price men
and the men who thought, and acted. and
argued, and voted from the firm conviction
that Spanish rule in Cuba must end. If
there is any one event in our national his
tory which is emphatically due 10 the de-
termined action and intelligent conviction
of individuals it is cur war with Spain.
The impression of the bemused gentle
man who is writing to the Post" prob
ably comes from the fact that just at
present there is great deal of talk about
manifest destiny. This means, in part,
that when We have committed ourselves,
with open eyes. TO a certain policy. we
must be ready TO accept the consequences.
even if some of them were Unforeseen;
and il means also that there are some
things which cannot be accomplished all
in a day, and that one must work along
the line of least resistance. The policy of
the country has changed almost as by
magic. From the position of a COMPARE
lively isolated power. with only our own
affairs TO consider, we have come into the
arena of the great world powers, and it is
useless to deny that in international rela-
tions there are some things which must
be let to take their course; they cannot
be altered hurriedly. they cannot always
even be understood. There are great
problems in the conflict OF nations and of
races in the history of the world which
must be worked out slowly. and not even
the wisest man can see how some of them
are to be solved. The statesman of other
centuries frequently thought he knew all
about his task when he was really in a
fog OF misapprehension. The statesman
of today has his convictions. but he is
wise enough to see that there are some
great world currents on which he must be
swept along without always knowing ex-
actly where they are taking him. In other
days people were guided by these currents
without understanding it; nowadays they
know, at any rate, what is moving them
and are not quite so apt to imagine them
selves fighting for one thing when they
are really working toward quite differ
ent result. II This be fatalism make the
most of it.