The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-25
AaS.ssassssa

Let us find out the facts fully, and then
let us act on these facts by legislative
or executive action.
Our oponents, because the body is
diseased, threaten to use the knife be-
fore knowing where the disease is. My
plea is for the diagnosis first, and then
for free use of the knife, but an IN
teligent and not blind use.
A surgeon who advocates remedy
not to cure a disease, but to secure a
patient, would be barred from assoCi-
ating with every reputable member OF
the medical profession, SO 1t should
be with the politician who treats an
economic evil as material out of which
to make political capital, wholly re-
gardless of the fact that by the course
they advocate they will bring disaster
to the body polite. Yet this is exactly
what our opponents are doing. They
propose to cure the evil of trusts by
plunging the entire body of the people,
and especially the Wage-earners, into
condition far worse than that from
which six years ago they escaped. We
propose to find out just where the evil
lies, and thsn to cut it out firmly, but
without injury to what is sound,
SO, again. when they come to deal
with expansion, our opponents juggle
words. They state insincerely what
they know is not true, and strive to
bring shame and dishonor on the Coun.
try for their own political advantage.
They say they are against Imperialism.
SO are we. Not an American in the
land favors Imperialism. and they know
this. They profess to fear the evils OF
great standing army and a grand
navy. They know that no one proposes
for q moment to make the army and
navy larger relatively TO our needs Of
the moment than they have been to our
needs of the past. We are not imperi-
aliStS, we are eXpanSioniSts, and that
we have got to be whether we wish to
or not. The work of expansion is 60
ing on all about us before our eyes.
Every miner who stakes out claim
on the Yukon, every new settler who
takes up unoccupied land among the
foothills of the Rocky mountains, is
unit in the great work of expansion.
The president has acted as he was
bound by his oath of office to act. To
have followed the advice Of the men
who wished him to bow down to in
surgent savagery would have been
| treason to the nation. He would have
been subject to impeachment had he
failed in his duty, had he failed to
employ every adequate means to re-
duce Aguinaldo, Just as his predecesS-
ors employed every adequate means to
reduce Geronimo and Sitting Bull. And,
ny lIt way, WITH our OppOIeutS tletl
their Pantheon of saints and heroes. I
earnestly recommend them TO put be-
side the bust of Aguinaldo the bust of
Sitting Bull. One is just as much en-
titled to recognition as the other, ana
| the men who now give aid and COM
fort by speeches and platforms to the
one stand not so very much above those
| men who at one time sold cartridges to
| the other.
No; this nation must he true to its
mighty destiny. This generation must
not finch from its allotted task and
must show itself worthy of the mighty
men who in the great Civil war saved
| the Union, SO that now the sons Of the
| men who wore the blue and of those
| who wore the gray shall stand shoulder
| to shoulder under the glorious banner,
which from henceforth wherever L
| floats marks a stride in advance to-
| ward the reign of peace, progress, jus
tice and orderly liberty throughout the
| world