The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-20
CONoUEST


1t does seem as If an epidemic of con-
quest had taken possession of the world.
Germany's war lord sulphuriously fulmi-
mates about the mailed fist and IS en-
Enthusiastically applauded by his people.
Russia has been calmly pocketing large
blocks of territory in Asia and shows
every intention of keeping it up.
The stolid English have. gone wild with
the war fever, as their late elections
show, and here in the United States the
sovereign fat of the. people has just in
dorsed policy of conquest with en-
phatic approval.
OF course, over in China, the powers
are telling us that they have no inten-
ton of dismembering that country, that
they are there merely to establish peace,
that thoughts of greed and selfish gain
have no place in their righteous souls
and they issue proclamations and enter
into agreements among themselves to
that effect.
But it will be WELL not to put too much
faith in their professions, for at the
same time they are demanding inGemn1-
ties that China can never pay, they are
pursuing policies that will cause further
rebellions and continuing complications
that will eventually result in dismember-
ment
And when China has been disposed of
there won't be so very much territory
lying around loose any more for conquest.
Africa is pretty well staked out. Mo
rocco, Tunis and .Abyssinia are about all
that is left there. Spain and France are
both coveting Morocco, and Tunis an
Abyssinia are also objects of tender So
licitude from certain .powers-Russia and
with jealous eyes and the great railway
which German capital is now building
from Constantinople to Bagdad seems to
indicate line south and west of which
sia Russian influence seems to be fully
established; and that is about the ex-
tent OF conquerabIe territory on the East
ern continent
On this continent the spanish-Amert-
can republics have Of late years grown
very apprehensive- lest they, too, should
become subjects of conquest And they
have good reason for such apprehension.
for certain European countries would
like nothing better than to acquire ex-
tensive colonies, in South America. and
the only thing that has kept them from
doing so hitherto has been our in
sistence on the Monroe doctrine.
But now leading American papers of
the administration type tell US that the
Monroe doctrine, like the Declaration of
Independence and few similar docu-
nIents, is quite out of date anyway, that.
moreover, We annulled it ourselves when
we took Cuba and Porto Rico from
Spain, as the Monroe doctrine not only
declared that foreign nations should not
interfere with our sister republics in
South and Central America, but it also
stipulated that we would not Interfere
with established colonies.
Those papers also point out to us that
the Spanish American republics with
their turbulent cockpit and bear pen gov
ernments, and despotic dictatorships are
really nothing but little cesspools of
anarchy, turbulence and oppression and
really haven't any business to be called
republics and that the people there
would be much better off under the en-
lightened colonial government Of some
civilized nation. They also call our at
tention to the fact that we are trading
With those countries at a constant loss.
as We sell them little or nothing in re-
turn for the heavy imports we receive
from them, and they leave it to be in
ferred by broad margin, that if wou1d
be great deal better for US if we an
propriated some of those countries ard
their entire commerce for cur own par
ticular use.
Possibly they may not mean any harm
by making such suggestions, but it does
seem little peculiar. and after the way
the people have indorsed the colonial
policy of the administration, such sug-
gesuons are perhaps not at all strange.