The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-03-09

| Two Years OF Mckinley.
| President Mckinley on SATURDAY.,
March 4th, completed two years of AIN
administration whose achievements
in war center public attention now
but whose triumphs for peace VIII
command the attention of history. 4
War is always but an accident in
our history, the accident of events in
a national life whose current prefers
the channels of peace, prosperity and
plenty. President McKinley's higher
glory is in having won these blessings
of peace as well as in having COM
passed great achievements in war
The conflict with Spain, its victories
and it's acquisitions have filled the
mouths of men for year past; buN
even for these, it is the secondary and
not the primary result which is nota-
bic. 1t is the position which the
| United States has taken before the
world, rather than the islands an
neXed, which is the best fruit of the
war.
This position is primarily due to
no single triumph or battle, neither
to victory in war nor to our island
acquisitions, but to the skill and
ability with which the general con
duct of affairs has been guided From
the day when General Woodford was
sent to Madrid in August, 1897, until
the treaty was ratified fortnight
ago, the standing of the Enite5
States has steadily improved, the
best possible evidence being in the
position just taken by Germany and
its expression of friendly regard.
| When the diplomatic history of these
eyentful months comes to be written
it will be known how easily a false
step might have placed the United
States in dubious position, unable
to advance without peril or to retreat
without dishonor; how close was a
European demonstration of sympathy
with Spain and how great the danger
that either haste or delay might com
| promise the consistent tradition and
| action of the United States.
Instead, from the demand for jus
! tice for Cuba and the approach to
war to the conclusion of victorious
peace, the steady march and progress
Of triumphant policy has unfolded
day by day and month by month
without pause or check The mere
defeat of $4,000, 900 by 10000, 900 was a
fOregOne conclusion; but what was
both requisite and difficult was
struggle so conducted that it would
win English speaking sympathy and
prevent European antipathy from
ever finding any precise moment at
which diplomatic protest be offered,
demonstration proposed or action
suggested. Such a moment never
came, and it never came because of
President McKinley's conduct of the
past two years.
These years of foreign triumphs
have been not less fertile in the solu-
ton of internal problems. President
Mckinley was inaugurated with a
tariff in existence hostile to American
industry, with the gold value of the
currency challenged and with the
national credit impaired because
national revenue was not equal to
national expenditure. These prob
lens had baffied every remedy for a |
dozen years. In two years, and with
a war thrown in, the tariff has been |
placed on a basis more likely to be |
permanent than any revision in |
twenty years, the gold standard has
been irrevocably established, nation
al credit placed on new basis and
the national revenue raised to a level |
where it will equal all necessary ex-
penditure in time of peace.
These great changes havessbeen ac-
companied by such overlooking pros
perity as the land has not knownsin a |
generation and has only matched in |
the decade after the Mexican war and |
the discovery of gold in California.
Success in war, triumph in diploma
cy, these achievements in tariff, cur
rency and fiscal legislation, and a
flood-tide of trade and manufacture |
at home and abroad in every field and
all industries have made the past two |
years memorable and given the coun-
try position before the world and
President Mckinley. a place before
the people which one must go far
back in our history to seek.