The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-26

nent author of the series of west Ameri-
can histories, which so long filled the
mind of the literary world as one of the
most erudite and thorough of historical
efforts. The closing scenes of the nine
tenth century seem to impress them
selves upon the authors mind as of
more than passing interest. In the war
with Spain he sees something more than
transient disagreement between two
great political powers, to be fought out
and dismissed from the mind with the
usual trophies to the winner In the
deliverance of Cuba, he sees something
more than the rescue from the hand of
the oppreSsor of a weak and down trod-
den people. The gravest issues were
here at stake, issues as important as
any which ever affected human pro-
gress or human destiny.
BY our forebears liberty was held
dear, and rather than part with our
freedom of thought and speech, and
action, we would die. But here was
involved something more than liberty,
or at least it was a higher, holier, a
purer liberty than any which the mind
of man had hitherto encountered. The
Keynote of the American revolution
was indeed liberty, but material rath-
er than an altruistic liberty, a liberty
which indeed made free the body and
mind of man, and limited the powers
of kings; but it was left to US of this
fin de steele civilization to conceive and
carry into practice and establish in our
national tenetS, and carry into interna-
tional ethics a liberty of humanity, a
liberty of love and kindness for our fell
low men, which in feeling and sent-
fnent has never before found expression
on fields of battle and amidst the roar
of naval artillery. 1T was as if the es-
sence OF sacred ideals had been incor-
porated in the constitutions of the COM
monwealths, and made part of the fund
amenta! principle of progress.
Human development is not calm I'M
ruffled How of placid waters but a tur-
bulent stream, with surging rapids and
intricate eddies between the deeper
pools OF rest and reflection. Issues We're
brought home to us for quick solution
during the year of '98, which the great
American mind had never had occasion
before seriously to consider. We were
quite sure what we would do if our ma
tional honor were touched or our flag
insulted. but in our political conscious
ness we had never ciphered out how
far it was wise and polite to CO. or how
far our sympathies and sense of right
should permit us to go, in matter of
purely international sentiment But
without thinking too long or too deep
ly upon the subject we finally gave way
to natural impulse, to find in the end
that we were not altogether wrong.
In weaving a fitting fabric of the
times, Mr.. Bancroft has taken for his
theme the very suitable and attractive
one, the Pacific ocean, and the late in
dustrial development upon its shores
and islands. Here is the largest of seas, |
full of history and romance, and
trimmed with illimitable wealth and po-
tentiaiiti It's great magnitude, and it's
peculiar sition between the old and
the new, The Old alien countries and
civilizations Of the east. and the rare |
intellectual and material unfoldings of
the NOR powerful west have held it up
to this time isolate, cut off from the |
world on both sides, or rather never /
having keen Joined to either 1t has re-
manned thus far the border region of ]
both worlds, the world of the prophet /
and the khans and the world of Chris |
tan civilization.
Mr.. Bancroft's new volume opens
with comparison of the present with |
the past, He points to lines of steam |
ships and fleets of sail where a solitary
ship a long intervals formerly ap- |
peared. He calls attention to the rail- |
way and telegraph lines, the birth and
growth of towns and cities, and the !
overspreading of settlements in regions
not long since wholly unknown to the
white man. Thus have sprung up as if
by magic in these so lately savage
wilds, on the American side, Nancou |
yer and other towns of British Column
bia and Alaska, and on the Asiatic side
such places at Vladivostok, Russia's
Pacific metropolis and transsiberian
railway terminus, and which is at once
the Petersburg, Gibraltar and Odessa
of the far east. Besides the ports opened
to commerce all along the Asiatic
coast, places have grown into promin
ence like Hong Kong, England's peer
. less cit1 and colony, and in Australia,
Z in place OF the huts of the black bush
men, there are cities like Melbourne
and Sydney, with their hundreds of
thousands of population.
Mr.. Bancroft makes 1t clearly evident |
that any escape from the war with
Spain on the part of the United States
was impossible. The wrongs of Cuba
cried to us from the ground, and we
could not close our ears to them. Every
effort was made to persuade the Span
Ssh government to put an end to the
! barbarities in Cuba, and to do the fair
thing by the Cubans, These pacific
iovefturas were met first by arrogance,
and then by insult. That queer thing,
ppdulS.l nOIOI, NIllCH pei Hlllo tllS MIL
ing Of prisoners, the starvation of non
combatants, public and private assas-
sination, treacherously blowing UP a
steamship on a friendly visit, unlimited
lying, lld other like indulgences was
utterly unable to right an infamous
wrong until after receiving severe
drubbins.
The story of Spain's decadence and
approaching death is well told by Mr..
Bancroft, and the causes given. Her
whole colonial system was a relic of
barbarism and she utterly refused to
learn or practice a better way, as Eng
land had done. Her barbarisms in
America would never for one moment
have been tolerated in Europe, yet
Europe. to some extent at least, seemed
Ito think il presumptuous on the part
Of the United States to dictate to one
SCI the cid monarchies concerning the
i TnanageInent of distant colonies.
ferThe cause of Spain's degeneracy Mr..
Bancroft clearly shows, first that it is
-Cthe law: secondly, the administration Oh
iahe law thirdly, the luxury and hcen-
tiousness of the people, with lying ana
flaziness. all tending towards decay.
Compare Spain at present with what
she was at the beginning Of the SIX
teenth century, when her monarcRs
y1pere gods. her merchants princes, her
marine the finest the world
chad ever seen up to that time, NUMBER
Il ing over a thousand ships.
9goA new world. with a wilderness OF
new wealth had just dropped into her
iiap as from the skies. The quays at
Cadiz and Seville were grooming unaer
1.-THE burden of new commerce; her
manufactures were fun to overfiowlhg'
and gold poured into her coffers' row
q