The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-11

whatever. To undertake to superimpose
upon them our free Institutions would seem
10 be an utterly hopeless task and in
such situation, what is the alternative
but a form of government which, while
not nominally, yet practically, in its es-
sentlal absolutism. IS imperial? Already
we nave seen how easy il is to drift into
imperial methods which are simply the
methods Of Daternaism in this very con-
nection. A cardinal principle of govern
ment OF the people, by the people, 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
bulwafk OF republic the foundation stone
on which It's popularity and prosperity
must needs rest. In this connection the
searching of the mails, the prescription
OF certain publications and the sitting of
correspondence is one of the most .ntol-
cradle outrases which a free people has
ever suffered; and it is significant most
OF all, of the DEVELOPMENT of a tendency
! which foreshadows that. whether We are
likely to have imperialism in our distant
possessions, in form, we really have il at
home in fact
1t is time that. confronted with such
possibilities, in connection with out new
possessions. we ask Is il worth while?
For, at this point il needs no gift Of
| prophecy, but only a very moderate knowl-
edge of history to reveal to US the DANCE s
that threaten us. There lies behind us in
its pages, the story of a great republic
which by its ever-eXpandng conques s
was lifted into the throne of the sover-
eighty of the civilized world only to find
that the tributaries that had made it
great were destined, ere long, TO be the
instruments of It's ruin.
Is 1t Worth while:
Now then the thing that destroyed
Rome was the loss of her homogeneity.
our strength to-day consists in the tri-
| umph of those great civic ideals which e
the property alone of Anglo-Saxcn ciliviu-
cation. But If we persist in ditu ing that
civilization 100 largely, the result needs no
prophet TO forecast. We may have terri
torial expansion, and material prosperity,
and for time, it may be that posses siol
which in the mere dream of il has begun
10 infiame our people with a strange in
ebrieiy-I mean worldwide supremacy
hut in the winning of ii we shall have lest
every distinguishing characteristic of a
free and Safeguarding people.
rs it worth while? And if you ask me-
what to-day, is an honorable a tentative
answer that a gracious Providence,
as | believe, has Just now given it to us
in ON ever-memorable achievement con-
summated last July at The Hague.
may not detain you here to indicate how
this great international question of the
| future disposition or administration of the
Philippine Islands. TO submit to an in
| ternatiCnal court, representing the best
wisdom of the best peoples, the question
of the best disposition and future admins
tration of the Philippines may be to ad-
NIT that as a nation we are not infalli-
BILE; but then, surely, a great nation can
afford to leave that claim to the some
what Pickwickian maintenance of it as
present afforded under alien skies and re-
mote and un-AmericGn traditions"
Bishop Potter was followed by nev DR..
! Rufus w. Clark of Detroit, who combat
ted the position taken by the famous New
York prelate. The discussion was con-
tinued somewhat less formally by Col
| Bradley NJ. Thompson of Ann Arbor
! Mich, and others.