Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-11-14
#istellanrous Reading.
EXPANSION DID IT.
Here Is an Earnest, Eloquent Analysis of the
Republican VictogV


Republican Victory.
John Temple Graves, in Atlanta News.
I make bold to differ with the current
Democratic estimate of the cause OF
Tuesdays tragedy of ballots.
I think that the ghost Of free silver
struck less terror to the soul Of suffrage
than the living issue Of giving up what
our arms and blood have won in the
Pacific seas.
believe that Tuesdays ballot was
an expansion victory, and the result
solidifies my conviction that the senti-
Of this country Is overwhelmingly for
Expansion.
Silver in this campaign was a shad-
owy ghost that revisited the political
battlefield only during the pale glimps-
es of the moon. 1t had no terrors and
1t scared no votes.
The vital, breathing, present issue
the paramount ISSUE" If you will
was the commerce Of China and the
Pacific ocean, and the trade winds
blew the ballots in a storm toward the
party that stood for these colossal
facts.
This Is a commercial age-morc's the
pity. The dominant thought of the
world Is trade and accumulation. Nor
al ideas make scant headway against
vast and evident commercial interests.
And when the moral ideas are chal-
lenged by the missionary fervor of
both liberty and religion, and the COM
mercial interests are patent and tower
ing, the result Of the poll battle ought
never to have been in doubt. It Is easy
to see this now that 1t Is all over. 1t
should have been clear before.
I do not think that the Republican
majority, great as it is, fully illustrates
the strength Of the expansion senti-
ment.
Thousands Of expansionists-and
am one Of them-followed the flag of
Democracy for the issues that 1t car
ried which seemed greater and deeper
than any commercial consideration.
The normal Democratic majority in
Georgia is about $4,000. The returns
this morning indicate only about 10000
majority. The $4,000 silent voters, in
my judgment, are expansionists. And
behind these are some "25,00O other
votes that would follow the flag to the
East" If they could go without treason
to Democracy.
I believe that the thinking South Is
for expansion. There Is every material
reason why it should be. No section Of
the republic has so great CONNER
cial stake in the trade Of the east. We
have been war-wasted and poor. While
the eastern and middle states have
rioted for half a century in prosperity,
we have travelled in the struggle for
recuperation from poverty and desola-
ton.
To our staple and material products
the open markets of China and the Pa
cif1c islands make the industrial light
in the east. They shine with golden
promise to our farms and factories
and mines.
More than this: The establishment Of
our national power and influence in
these Pacific seas Is the only possible
guarantee which the future holds for
the completion of the Nicaraguan ca
nal. That great enterprise has been for
20 years the plaything Of lobbyists In
the houses of congress. The American
flag in the Philippines makes its COM
pletion imperative and sure.
And when that imperial waterway
links the two imperial oceans of the
world, these gulf and southeastern
states become the geographical center
Of the worlds commerce-with all the
measureless impetus which that tre-
mendous fact will give to her seaport
cities and to her inland trade.
What people, then, have so vast an
interest in the flag in the East" as
we have, and if Materialism be the god
of this age, is it any wonder that vota-
ries should follow in thousands where
his mercenary banner leads?
Mark you I do not say that the south
is in favor Of Imperialism as Mr.. Bryan
defines it. There is no Endorsement
here of colonies of slaves and OF pro-
consuls enriched with spoils. All. the
instinct and traditions of Cowpens and
Kings Mountain would rebel at that.
But there was somehow the pervad-
ing hope that the Mckinley policy, In
its fuller evolution, would conserve all
these Republican ideals, and on the
other hands, the pervading apprehen-
sion that Bryan in his strenuous zeal
for liberty, might loose the substance
while he bound the shadow.
Since, then, the policy which wraps
our highest interests has won-without
or consent-it is high time
that the business south should speak
its mind to those who represent it in
the national legislature. We are free
now from the immediate fealty to
party which bound our tongues. Our