Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-15

front. Whatever may transpire in the
Fhillpplne islands, or whatever congress
MAJ do, all the different elements OF the
opposition to the administrator nave So
emphasized the subject that the discus
sion is likely to be Kept up for a twelve
month.
AS an independent journal Harper's
. W eekiy welcomes such a discussion, for
II VIII make far and ava the most in
teresting and instructive presidential
ainpaign that this generation has seen.
For the first time in recent years we
snail nave a subject really worthy of a
presidential campaign; and nothing else
can 50 sur the people to a proper realiza-
tioh Oh our place in the world, and OF the
proper meaning OF American nationality;
ana no other subject that can fall within
the range of Dopular discussion so APP
peals to the political imagination.
in its present stage the discussion
turns on the withdrawal of our troops
from the Philippines, giving. up our au-
thorlty there, and the granting of indie
pendence to the Filipinos at once-none
OF which things will or can be done; but
II the controversy be carried to it's logi-
cal conclusion we shall be asked by the
anti-imperialists to grant independence
also to Puerto Rico and to withdraw our
control at once from Cuba. Every man
who knows the people Of these islands
and can take a historical view of them
knows that we shall have to govern them
all for an indefinite time and that we
shall not relinGuish con,:oi of them
that we cannot in honor r%elinquish con"
troll Of them-tiil they are capable of real
self-government and ready for it.; and
those who know best these Spain-ridden
children of the tropics know that the
time for autonomy for them lies far in
the future. Nothing that can now be
SAID or done can materially change the
hnal result-the result to which the ma
ton is in honor pledged. and which the
Clac1cthr and "attln nf tho A n1ny.ion1
people may be trusted under any admin
lStratiOn to work out.
The anti-imperialists are right in say
ing that more is involved in the discus
sion than our immediate conduct with
regard TO these islands. In fact, neither
the Philippine archipelago, nor even Gu
pa n Puerto Rico, are necessary for
our salvation. They are indeed but in
cldental TO the larger subject that they
bring fOrWard-Our proper place among
nations IN the impending i%nternationl
establishments.
During the lifetime of all men now liv-
ing our attention has been liked not on
American nationality in it's largest sense,
but on American nationality only as dis
~tinguished from division A. home. Sla-
very. secession, reconstruction, the prop
en- adjustments Of tariffs and the prob
lem Of the currency-these home duties
have engaged US all our lives long. I'M
portant as they We're. important as the
>NA NAN AcohN y ~ -, SiAS ACPl
rs from a proper appreciation Of hat
has been kept going on in the larger
world, and our politics had become pro-
vincial and dull. Our consciousness of a
nationality, of a great mission in the de-
~yelopment of civilization, had become
narrowed to the thought only of keeping
our own territory intact. To unity it
forever, to solidify our national senti-
lnent, to come to a realization of our
selves, it was necessary to look outward;
a nd thn n11tciHn nCrnocihi1ftin that howe
nom come to us almost by accident have
happily brought an occasion for us to
look outside ourselves.
The discussion, then, will take in our
relations TO other nations: It will bring
home to us the necessity Of a Wide-reach-
ing and modern foreign policy; it will
give us an appreciation Of the great
forces that are charming the world. And
all this comes just when is
entering its romantic era, and when ad-
ventures of trade are more thrilling than
adventures of knighthood once were
when the game of honest diplomatists
and enterprising merchants must be
played on the map of the whole world,
and no longer along the coastline of a
single ocean. For many centuries the
Mediterranean limited the enterprises
and bounded the thought of men; then
the Mediterranean broadened into the
Atlantic, n for four centuries, almost
to our own time, our enterprises and our
thought We're limited by this one ocean.
Now the opening of the Pacific measures
the next step that we must take and for
ever hold as a means of extending our
vision and our influence.
The administrative and the timid, who
take an academic and not an evolution
airy view of our institutions, will do the
best service that this class Of minds can
ever do in stimulating, by the express
sions of their doubts and fears. the inn
/ agination and the moral energy of the
whO1n nann1n Lot The iSSua coma then
Nothing else could be so wholesome.