Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-09-09

d88lubt Inem . nu00l0 or n0lrsDplltttn4
theories about the Monroe doctrine and
the constitution Of the United States?
What should we think Of Jefkerson II.
ignoring the practical advantages he
had. on grounds OF constitution or other
scruple lost the chance to buy Louisiana
OF Napoleon? What will be thought OF
US century hence OF. through fear of
trouble .Or any other fear. we yield the
vantage ground which, all. unbidden,
has come to US, vainly seeking the re.
tention Of the bucolic republic OF Wash
ington and Franklin, which has already
gone from us beyond recall?
The globe Is shutting up like q teles-
cope ;and, through the smaller end one
can see farther than Jefferson saw
through the larger. Manila IL not as
far from Washington under modern
conditions as New Orleans was in JEFF
ferson's day; California was harder to
reach at the date Of the Gadsden purA
chase. Every year the world grows
smaller Yet the gulf states Of the
south, negro-ridden and Impoverished,
have stood apart, helpless. seeing the
narrowing stream quite pass them by,
and, just as great ocean outlet Is Of
Tered them, comes troop of penny
trumpeters to toot the old cant about
the consent Of the Observation-Disclosures
own author did not consider 1t when the
enlargement Of his country was in
volved-and to drone about constitu-
tional forms. which have at no time
stood against the expanding desires or
the practical needs Of people essen
tally enterprising and progressive.
Already this people approaches in
numbers hundred millions. Does
any thoughtful man imagine that they
can be held within Chinese wall when
the world at large is moving resolutely
forward, each overcrowded nation seek
ling to take possession of the waste
places of the earth? Has modern in
vention, convulsing the rest of the uni
/ verse. fixed us where the fathers OF the
! republic left US? Does electricity, with
its centralizing agencies, count for
nothing? But, waving matters of com
merce and war, and of business compe-
titions. both rational and national. what
4 of our boosted religion and civilization
| IL we are to draw back aghast before
the thought of carrying the Bible and
4 the flag beyond existing boundaries and
insist upon a policy of isolation the end
of which, even il 1t were possible, could
be only another China with exceeding
doubtful Yankee variations?
The idiosyncrasy of the century which
we are leaving behind us was liberty.
Beginning with the successful revolu-
ton of the British colonies in North
America, the provinces of Spain in
South America and the people of the
European countries from Great Britain
to the Russian and the Ottoman from
tiers have been reaching out after con-
l<ki ~
4 they have gained either it, or something
like it. The idiosyncrasy Of the century
before us will be markets. Labor-sav-
ing machinery has brought about over
i production. Tariff laws are merely
provisional. The twentieth Gentry will
be given over to a great commercial
battle between the nations, and the law
of the universe will read the survival OF
/ the fittest.
I In this battle all the original advan-
tages will lie with the United States
Whatever protection may, or may moi
have done-and it is our opinion that
/. free trade would have brought the
). same results-it is quite certain that the
I American manufacturer no Longer
stands in need of it. From a collar
; button to a locomotive he is beating his
foreign rivals. He needs no tariff. AL
he wants is to get at the markets OF
the world with the least obstruction. II
4 will be curious piece of political irony
|if we should ultimately reach a tariff
for revenue only-for with the existing
! needs of the treasury, freedom of Gus
, tom house taxation is not possible
through William Mckinley, the bell
wether of protection, having ineffectu-
4 ally sought II under Grover Cleveland
s the putative friend of revenue reform
:, But such may be tie cynical experience
of the coming decade; and such was the
actual experience of England. which
Il got free trade under the lead of Sill
Robert Peel an original protectionist
But, in all these possible incidents
and transactions, the Gulf states have
but a subordinate interest. an interest
indirect and second hand. Their beacon
light is the Nicaragua canal There
after their hope is the development OF
the universe on the other side of the
Nicaragua canal and the transfer of the
activities of the Atlantic to the Pacific.
This transfer is inevitable. All thai
the political adventurer in American
politics can do with his sophomore
ebulitions of mistaken patriotism anc
, his rudimentary notions about inter
national politics VIII DE TO opStruct anC
delay it. If the Gulf states are true t.
themselves they will stop him in hi:
/. mid-career. They will rise en- masse
and show them that they, also, know {
thing or two. They will impress upor
his understanding the fact that he j:
not upon vote-catching track They
: will fling aside any party which dare.
step across the pathway of their pros
] perity and which proposes to manure
their wasted fields and to fill their hun.
cry mouths with commonplaces abou
/" the consent of the governed" They
will say to him as we say to him, "Sir
the South cannot live forever on cob
webs" They will say to him as we say
to him.. Sir, we do not get our bread
and butter out OF politics, anyhow, and
as between Wheeler and Leland you
2 we follow Wheeler and Lee, and thu
; flag. and the further it carries US thu
better" They will say to him, as WI
say to him, "Sir. the Mckinley admin
istration may be all you say it is. bu
we will settle with Agulnaldo first ant
consider Mckinley afterward, and
! meanwhile, we have our convictions ant
our opinions, and do not mean to foo
away our time watching to see. what TIL
: administration does in order that w,
l .ro,, 40 avoctJu tho OnnOSifo vo,