The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-10-17

supreme ends. 1t is of course, conceiva-
BILE that in the persons of those to whom
these distant governments shall be
committed we shall find only the high
est ideals and only the most incorrup-
tible integrity. But, what are the proba-
bilities in the case? What is the like.
lihood that there any more than any
where else the stream will rise higher
than the source"
Bishop Potter referred to an article
by Prof. q. E. Howard to show that 1t
took England 250 years after the begin
ming of her history as an imperial power
to get a decent civil service.
DRIFTING INTO IMPERIALISM.
Comparing the Philippines to India he
said
There are the same diversions of
race, condition, religion, tribal religion,
and the like, and in the case of these
insular communities there is no bind
ing interest whatever. To undertake
to superimpose upon them our free in
stitutions would seem to be an utterly
hopeless task, and in such a situation
what is the alternative but form of
government which, while not nominally,
yet practically, in it's essential absolut-
how easy it is to drift into imperial
methods, which are simply the methods
of paternalism is this very connection.
A cardinal principle of government of
the people, by the people and for the
people, is that the people shall not be
treated like children, kept in the dark.
A sound public opinion, we say, is the
great bulwark of a republic, the foun-
dation stone on which it's popularity and
prosperity must needs rest. In this con-
nection the searching of the mails, the
prescription of certain publications and
the sitting of correspondence form one
of the most intolerable outrages which a
free people has ever suffered, and it 10
significant, most of all, of the develop
ment of tendency which foreshadows
that, whether we are likely to have i'm
perialism in our distant possessions in
form, we already have it at home in
fact.
CAUSE OF ROME's FALL.
1T is time, confronted with such
possibilities in connection with our new
possessions, we ask, is it worth while
possessions, we ask: Is it worth while?
For, at this point, it needs no gift of
prophecy, but only a very moderate
knowledge of history to reveal to us
the dangers that threaten us. There
lies lehind us in it's pages the story of
a great republic, which, by it's ever ex-
panding conquests, was lifted into the
throne of the sovereignty of the civiliz
ed world only to find that the tribu-
taries that had made it great, were
destined ere long to be the instruments
of it's ruin.
Now then the thing that destroyed
Rome was the loss of her homogeneity.
Our strength today consists in the
triumph of those great civic ideals which
are the property alone Of Anglo-Sa
civilization. But if we persist in dilut-
ing that civilization too largely the re-
suit needs no prophet to forecast. We
may have territorial expansion and
material prosperity, and for a time it
may be that possession which in the
mere dream of it has begun to infiame
our people with strange inebriety, 1
mean worldwide supremacy, but in the
winning of it we shall have lost every
distinguishing characteristic of a
free and self-governing people.
SUGGESTS ARBITRATION.
"Is it worth while? And if you ask
me what today is an honorable alterna-
tive answer that gracious providence,
as believe, has just now given it to us
in an ever-memorable achievement
consummated last July at The Hague.
I may not detain you here to indicate
how this great international question of
the future disposition or administration
of the Philippine islands is to be set
| tied.
"To submit to an International Court
representing the best wisdom of the
best peoples, the question of the best
disposition and future administration Of
the Philippines may be to admit that
as a nation we are not infallible; but
then, surely, a great nation can afford to
leave that claim to the somewhat
Pickwickian maintenance of it at
present afforded under alien skies and
remote and un-American traditions"