The times., 1899-07-25
Mr.. Livingston on Expansion.

Representative Livingston, of Georgia,
has proved his title to a seat in the front
row of level-headed Democrats by his re-
cent remarks on one phase of expansion.
Expansion is q fact" says Mr.. Livingston,
with the courage to acknowledge actuaIities
plain as the mountain that shoots up out
OF the sea, and the Democratic party can
not consistently repudiate the acquisition
and responsibilities which have fallen to us
naturally" If he have desire for future
political usefulness Mr.. Livingston is on
safer ground than that occupied by the men
OF both parties who are trying to blink
hard facts out OF existence and to whistle
down the wind. We would rather be in
his or Senator Morgan's or General Wheel
er's shoes than in those Of that small con-
tingent of Democratic Congressman and
other officeseekers at the South and West
who are engaged in the impossible task OF
lifting themselves by their bootstraps. Mr.
Livingston sees in the proper utilization of
the commercial opportunities now opening
TO the United States re-inyigorated South
He sees in il the passing of the sceptre of
industrial and financial power from small
group of States in the extreme Northeast
Of the nation to the producing sections OF
the South and West. He sees the construc-
ton OF an interoceanic isthmian canal and
the shortening Of the distance TO the COM
merce OF the North Pacific by ten thousand
miles or more, together with the cheapen-
ing of the cost of transportation to the
Asiatic markets OF the products of that
the Alleghenies and The Rockies. He real
izes, of course, that the combined power OF
the capital invested in transcontinental
railroad lines is opposed TO our holding the
Philippines, because an Asiatic possession
would mean the fastening OF the construc-
tion of a ship channel across the narrow
neck OF land that separates the waters of
the Atlantic from the Pacific. But he is
brave enough and big enough to defy this
power in the interest of his country. He
may expect to feel its opposition in some
form in the Fifty-sixth Congress and again
when he asks 10 be returned to the House.
But he has producing and exporting con-
stituency which can be depended upon TO
stand by him when the lines are drawn
on expansion as they are bound to bs
drawn by the force Of circumstances When
Southern mills and spindles begin rapidly
to multiply and roar and whirr under the
energlzing influence OF enlarged markets
for the products of Southern mines and fo--
ests and farms. Southern statesmen of Mr.
Livingston's type and stature will be too
secure in the confidence of their constitu-
ents to BE- relegated to the shades of OBJ
scurity by the selfish vested interests that
are melting the infammable minds OF mis-
! guided sentimentalists to cry them down.
We cannot understand why every public
man OF the South and West. who has the
interests of those sections at heart, does not
take the same sensible and practical view
OF the great economic questions involved
in the Philippine issue as that expressed
by Representative Livingston and Senator
Morgan. Mr.. Livingston announces the
doctrines of tie founders of the party In
the declaration that the Democratic party
must be patriotic. Its cannot afford to go
back on the results of the war with Spain.
That war brought about the further expau-