Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-24
THE ISSUE or CONTRACTION.

ton. Expansion became a settled fact
when the treaty of peace with Spain was
ratified and title to the Philippines passed
to the United States. The question as to
whether this country would or would not
pursue a policy of expansion no longer
existed after the new territory in the
south Pacific had been duly acquired.
In attempting to convert the holding
issue the democrats must shape the ques-
ton into this ~form-Shall the govern
ment pursue a policy of contraction?
Shall we ~inaugurate the system of sur
rendering that which we nave acquired?
Shall we abandon territory which the for
tunes Of war nave placed in our hands?
Shall we haul down the flag where it has
been raised in accordance with the recog-
nized law Of nations and the ~time-honor-
ed practices Of mankind? Shall we con-
TESS to the world hat the brigands Of
Luzon were right in their treacherous
slaughter of American soldiery, and that
their standard of liberty is better than
our own? Shall we rob posterity of the
commercial and industrial benefits to be
derived from lands legitimately acquired
under the conditions of war, place an
embargo on the growth of our Pacific
trade. cripple national influence and
owe in both peace and war, and sur
render advantages in the unavoidable
rivalry Of nations that could never again
be secured?
These are questions which the national
democracy would inject into the political
campaign of next year, giving to each and
all the platform affirmation Of that party.
The leaders of that organization register
an unqualified yes" to every proposition
embraced within the scope of a policy
of contraction. They would turn back
the wheels of national progress, undo
the work which environment has made a
necessity, and place this great republic
on a definite and we'll defined policy Of
retreat. They represent a party Of mega
tior-a system Of opposition to the things
that are, Of enmity to manifest destiny,
of a%ntagonism to the inevitable trend Of
circumstances which mould the future
in the womb of time and give the i'm
press of Gods right hand upon the his
tory of nations.
1t is only when the problems of our
national life are solved that the democ-
racy is equal to the mental elevation of
honestly weighing them. 1t has written
itself down the enemy of every great
movement that promised new vigor to
the vital forces of the nation. From OBJ
position to the great moral movement
that eliminated in the war of the re-
bellion and the freedom of the slaves
down to the present time, the democracy
has fought with vigor every step in the
direction of reform, only to kiss the hand
that smote it and write new epitaphs for
its own crushed idols of the past.
1t fought the war policy of the gov
and gave it's hopeless SYM
pathies to the south, only to finally re-
joice in the wisdom of a republican ad-
ministration that engineered that great
conflict to a close; it ridiculed the freeing
of the slaves, only to accept that sequence
of the civil war as a progressive step in
the career of a great nation; it fought the
adopted plans of reconstruction that
stood for the reunion of the states on q
basis of equity and right, only to applaud
the new sisterhood that grew from the
well nurtured garden of national frater-
nifty; it bitterly opposed the return to
specie payments, and the placing of the
reconstructed country on a solid financial
basis in it's business relations with the
world, only to finally accept the wisdom
of republican leadership as the crowning
triumph of a successfully conducted war.
1t now resumes its policy of negation,
only to lay the foundations for a future
retreat from its untenable grounds when
the plans n policies of the republican
party respecting the Philippines shall
have matured in the prosperity and well
care and growth Of the nation and the