The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-03-07


was in full career.
Mr.. Depew can hardly fail to be
rhetorical, but what he said, in the dis.
cussion of the Philippine question, was
distinguished less by rhetoric than by
sense aud reason. He dismissed most
CT the questions the disputatious are
raising to cloud or encumber the real
issue regarding the powers of the
United States in the Far East. The
question as to the ownership of the
islands was raised only by few Amer
leans. Nowhere else is the proprietor.
ship Of the United States government
disputed. The theory that the archi-
pelago belongs to the Inhabitants is
purely academic. The governments
title to the Philippines is the same as
to Porto Rico. The question of own
ership cannot be submitted to the in
habitants of the regions acquired from
Spain, or to the people of this country.
Ownership, argued Mr.. Depew, is as
completely established as though the
United States had held the islands for
centuries instead of months.
Any questions that may be raised
pertain to other matters than owner
ship. They relate to conditions in the
Far East, to administration, to the res.
toration of order. Then will come
such Questions as are commanding the
attention of the governor of Cuba,
where brigands have become farmers,
revolutionists conservative citizens,
where order has taken the place of an
archy and law of license, and where
the inhabitants are acquiring the habit
of self. government.
AS to the results of the Spanish war,
the acquisition of the Philippines, says
Mr.. Depew, has placed the United
States within easy reach of China, ia
pan, and the countries of Asia. Nine
hundred millions of people have been
made directly accessible to American
markets. They are not much further
from New York than is Havana. They
buy thousand million dollars year
from other nations, and Americas
share of this enormous trade is only
about five per cent. This is, indeed,
interesting arithmetic for American
manufacturers and the laborers they
employ. 1t presents, in concrete form,
the possibilities in store for the COM
mercial interests of the United States.
The five per cent ought to grow to fifty
per cent-to $500,000,000, with the in
crease added, and this alone will be
prodigious. This estimate is somewhat
staggering to the ordinary mind, but its
plausibility is sustained by men of cool
heads and competent judgments-and,
in this class, lifelong career, in va
ried affairs, shows that Mr.. Depew is
chief. His statements are not rhetori-
CAL They are the conclusions of
and well-matured iudg-
ment, the deliberate convictions of
man entirely competent to prophecy.
Mr.. Depew enlarges upon the in
creased industrial production in the
United States due to electricity, steam,
and other agencies. A market for this
vast and growing output of all the ar
ticles the human race consumes must
be found or the result must be slow
wages, want of employment, idleness
and want at our own DOORS" This is
fact, not theory or rhetoric. The al
Tentative is an outlet for these produc-
tons, or close the factory door. The
rapidly-advancing population of this
country is another factor in the ques-
tons Mr.. Depew discussed. Millions
have come here from Europe, and it is
predicted that century hence the GEN.
sus of the United States will record
population of 400,000,000. If there is a
surplus of products now, what may the
conditions be then?-a question respect
fully addressed to the serious consider
alton of the anti-imperialists. The
is indebted to Senator Depew
for new and powerful enforcement of
familiar considerations which, by rea-
son of having been made a somewhat |
too steady diet, have rather palled on
The American stomach.