Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-09

course DR.. Talmage steers clear of th'
political entanglements of our time ant
recommends that which will meet tht
approval Cf all who hope for the per
petuity of our republic and the welfare
Of other lands; text, Genesis xviii, a.
"Thou shalt spread abroad to the wesi
and to the east.
Since the Americano-Hispanic war i.
concluded and the United States en-
bassador is on the way to Madrid and
the Spanish ambassador is ON the way
TO Washington the people Of our coun-
try are divided into expansionists and
antiexpansionists From a different
standpoint than that usually taken
discuss this all absorbing theme, l leave
the political aspect Of this subject to
statesmen and warriors and pray AL
mighty God that they may be enabled
rightly to settle the question whether
the islands in controversy shall be final
" annexed or held under protectorate
or resigned to themselves, while l call
attention to the fact that a campaign
of moral and religious expansion ought
to be Immediately opened ON widest
and grandest scale.
At the close of this war God has put
into the hands of this country the key
to the worlds redemption. Heretofore
the religious movement in pagan lands
had to precede the educational. After
in China and India and the islands of
the sea the missionaries have labored
over so or rs years the printing press
and the secular school came in. Now to
better advantage than ever before re-
ligious and secular enlightenment may
go side by side. and SO the work be ac-
complished in short time and more
thoroughly. Starting with the fact that
in Cuba and Porto Rico and the Philip
pine Islands at least three-fourths of
the people can neither read nor write,
what an opportunity for school and
printing press Within five years every
man in those islands may be taught to
read not only the Bible, but the Declar-
alton of Independence and the consti-
tuition of the United States and the
biography Of George Washington and
Of Abraham Lincoln
1t seems to me that the government
of the United States ought by vote of
congress afford common schools and
printing presses to those benighted
regions Our national legislature by one
vote appropriated $50, 200, 900 to give
bread and medicine to Cuba. Why not
by similar generosity give $50, 000,-
900 for feeding and healing the minds
and souls of those ignorant and besotted
archipelagoes. In the name of God ]
nominate school for every neighbor-
hood of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Phil
ippines. AS soon as the gavel falls at 10
O. o'clock of next Dec. 4 ON the table of
senate and house of representatives and
the roll has been called and the prelim-
inaries observed let some member Of
our national legislature, with mind and
soul and voice strong enough to be
heard not only through those halls, but
through Christendom, propose meas
ure for the mental and moral olsen
tlraliment of the islands in controversy.
What has made American civiliza
tion the highest civilization the world
has ever seen? Next to the Bible and
the church, schools, common schools,
schools reaching from the Atlantic to
the Pacific and from British America
to gulf of Mexico Five years under
such educational advantage, and this
whole subject that keeps our public
men agitated, some of them to frothing
at the mouth. will settle itself. Give
those islands readers, spoilers, arithme-
tics, histories, blackboards, maps, geog-
raphies, globes Let the state legisla
lures at their next meeting, some of
them assembling in early autumn. take
parts of those islands under their es-
pecial educational patronage. What is
needed is state and national action in
this matter of schools.
Work of the Printing Press.
Then let the editorial associations of
the United States, as many of such
organizations as there are states, resolve
at the next convocation to stablish in
every region of those islands printing
press, to be supported by people of this
country until it can become self sup
porting. Each of these state editorial
associations sending out to those islands
at least one editor and two reporters
and enough typesetters, down will go
the ignorance and superstition of those
islands as certainly as the Spanish feet
under Cervera sank under the pound
ing CT our American battleships, and
into their every port will go intelll-
gence and love of free institutions as
certainly as into the harbor of Manila
went Admiral Dewey on that famous
night when he was not expected Hoes
printing pressl Nothing can stand be-
fore its bombardment Editors of
American newspapers and publishers of
American booksl Take the ordination
for such magnificent service Elo-
quence on yonder Capitol hill cannot
meet the exigency. Epigrams of poIiti-
cal platforms or in state legislatures
will not hasten the desired consumma-
tion one week or one hour or one mo-
ment.
Still further, here is wide open door
for Christianity. First of all, we have
the attention of those people The
heather nations are for the most part
soporiic. The American missionaries
heretofore had great difficulty in get
ting heathendom to listen. They ez
cited some comment by their attire, so
different was the parting of the hair
and the shape of the hat and the cut of
the coat and the formation of the shoe
of the evangelizers, but the questions
Grain0 Brings Relief