The record-union., 1899-05-06
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.

To clear the mind.-There are already
indications that an attempt will be
made between now and next summer
to exalt the subject of expansion into
the ranks of the national political is
sue. 1t may we'll be regarded in such
light; for even granting the diplo-
matte necessities that brought to pass
our territorial expansion within the
past year, it nevertheless remains a
fact that the creation of dependencies
is a remarkable departure from past
standards.
Before, however, the Presidential
stew-pot commences to simmer there
are a number of questions that ought
to be SO clearly recognized by the gem
eral public as having no bearing upon
the main question of expansion that it
may be we'll to refer at least to one of
them. 1t is being said in print and in
speech that the Filipinos are fighting
for exactly the same thing as our fore
fathers and that therefore there is
nothing to be done except to act on
precedents of the past and back out of
the Philippines just as the British
backed out of America.
For what did our forefathers contend :?
For that which they were we'll able
to carry ,on-self government. What
else did they regard as their inalienable
rights? Life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. And in order to secure
their point, what declar alton did they
make regarding themselves? That all
men are born free and equal-a soph-
1stical statement, for whose alireality
the nation they maze was almost dis
rupted from 81 to 60.
Very well. Viewed dispassionately,
these noble contenders for the rights
OF men, ought themselves earlier than
their own contention against the Eng
llsn, TO nave backed out from Amer
lea: because the poor Indian himself
fought battle for self-government-
after his own idea-and for life. lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness-as
he understood it. Yet 1 VOW that there
be few of US who would have contem-
plated with satisfaction the triumph of
the savage Indian even though he was
contending for the land that the Great
Father gave him, and the miles over
which his ancestors had roamed. hunt
ed, fought and died.
Let US come down to even more mod
ern matter. Less than g. year ago
there was fierce outbreak of racial
feeling in the South White men were
organized in a certain amateur uniform
and armed with shotguns; not because
the colored Americans had any particu-
lar designs upon the hearths or homes
of their fellow-men or because they
were trying to drive the whites off any
particular spot of ground. In brief
the trouble was this: that one hundred
and twenty years and more after the
declaration of independence the de-
scendants of those who fought for in
dependence We're willing to take up
arms, to prove even by the death of
their colered brethren that there is
neither political equality nor freedom
for all, in this great country of ours.
This brief look at ourselves and our
past is designed to make one point
clear, in order that it may be recognized
as having little bearing upon the pres
ent dispute. The point is that there is
such a thing as a dominant race, and
while in theory men are born free and
odooi, anu wine III TACT the pursuit OF
happiness is the object of all of us, yet
in practice the pursuit of that happi-
ness will ever have to be along lines
decided as to their direction by the
dominant race, or the struggle for that
supposed happiness will have to be re-
pressed by the dominant race. By this
l do not for a moment mean that injus-
tice should be done, but simply that the
assertiveness and the physical exuber-
ance of a barbaric or semi-savage race
has always been considered a fit sub
ject for repression in order to produce
governmental stability.