The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-10-14

set forth certain excerpts on imperial
ism from an address delivered by Mr..
Justice David j. Brewer of the SUI
preme court of the United States, deliv-
cred before the Liberal club Of Buffalo.
In my judgment, it would be good ex-
ercise in patriotism and intellectual de-
yelopment for every citizen of the re-
public, Democrat, Republican or Pop
ulist to commit to memory these pun
gent, terse, classic, wise and patriotic
words of the great jurist They consti-
tute rare piece of logic and Of rhet-
oric. AS some of my Republican read
ers may not know who Judge Brewer
is, l will tell them. He is one of the
ablest lawyers and most distinguished
Republicans in the land. For years he
was on the bench of the supreme court
of Kansas, he served long time on
the bench of the United States circuit
court, he has for about a decade been
a member of the highest judicial tri-
bunal in the world, and he is universal
ly regarded as one of the greatest of
our supreme court judges. Surely his
words ought to carry great weight
with them. Judge Brewer says:
1t is said that the Anglo-Saxon race has mani
tested a capacity to govern well, that we are OF
that race and that therefore, could well gov
ern the PhilNpine Islands colonies. l do not
question the capacity of the race well and wise
ly 70 govern Others. / object to the Philippine
policy because it antagonizes the principles upon
which this government founded, which have
controlled its life up to the present time and the
perfection of which has been the hope and aspira-
ton of every true American.
Very few nations, very few individuals. live up
to their high ideals but surely the Declaration Of
independence has been the ideal of our life, and
we have striven to make it more and more real.
Now government by force is the very antipodes of
this, and to introduce government by force over
any portion OF the nation is to start the second
quarter Of the second century of our life upon
principles which the exact opposite of those
upon which we have hitherto lived. 1t is one
thing to fail of reaching your ideal; it is an en-
tirely different thing to deliberately turn your
back upon it.
The test of government is not in the outward
mechanical display Of order, but in the capacity
to develop the best men, and we have lived in
the faith that government by the consent of the
governed develops the best men. We have not let
the wise rule the ignorant, the learned the I'M
learned, the rich the poor, but We have appealed
always to "the plain people" as the ones in whose
judgment 10 rely ana upon whose shoulders SHOulu
rest the burden of the government.
Ideals are, after all, the eternal force. Human
life and destiny controlled by them. They
may seem today of little significance, but around
them gather material interests, and tomorrow
their power is disclosed.
Parting of the Ways.
Government by consent and government by
force, no matter how well the government may be
administered, two essentially antagonistic
principles. Doubtless no immediate conflict will
follow. We may see a large measure OF prosper
ity, but are we not sowing the seeds which in the
days to will grow up into a harvest of trou-
BILE for our children and our childrcn's childrenf
Evils of Empire.
4 necessity of colonial possessions is increase
in our regular army, and the first increase pro-
posed is from sc, 900 to 100000 men. 1t is a
strange commentary that at the close of the nine
teenth century the head OF the most arbitrary
government in the civilized world, the car Of the
Russias, is inviting the nations Of the world to
decrease in their arms while this, the freest land,
is proposing an increase in it's Yet such seems to
be the imperative need, if we enter upon the sys-
tenn of colonial expansion.
Great Economic Questions Confront
Us.
Now the great economic problem in this coun-
try IS not chow can a few men make more money
and pile up larger fortunes" but show can the
great body of the people make a fair and COM
Portable liying?" The right to work is again and
again insisted upon as more important than the
right 70 vote and the cry of the right to work is
supplemented by the cry that the state furnish
work to all who cannot obtain it elsewhere.
Arc we likely to aid in solving this problem by
bringing into our national life 100000 IL,
000 900 of unskilled Malay laborers2 We have shut
the doors against the Chinese. Are they any
worse than the Malay? Shall we introduce in this
|
action of the Federation Of Labor in protesting
against new competition of cheap labor as we'll
as an increase of the army, with its consequent
increase of burden and taxation on the employed
laborer.
Evils From Concentrated Wealth.
But they say there is money in it. And, after
all, this is really the most potent factor in the
proposed reaching out after the islands of the
orient The wealth Of 0rmus and of Ind is today,
as in the days of Milton, the expectation and the
dream of many Possession of the orient, with its
accumulated wealth of centuries, dazzles the inn
agination and confuses the judgment. The haze
of mystery hangs over that vast domain. Wealth
untold is believed to be there, ready to be appro-
priated by any dominant power. All the nations
and tribes within Lord Salsbury's definition
of dying nations and must soon be divided be-
tween and appropriated by the living and grow
ing nations China is held out as dying nation,
not share in its appropriation? What picture
this isl The eagle of liberty standing like a
buzzard to grow fat over an expected corpse.
III fares the land, to fastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay"
The Caesars the spears of their victorious
legions flash in the sunlight of every known land,
and in their triumphant return they brought with
them the accumulated wealth of all the nations
they had subdued. The spendor of imperial Rome
outshone the world, but the wealth thus obtained
without value given undermined the empire, and
the glory of Rome is simply memory. Napoleon
beheld the shining star Of destiny; and then
Does human nature change through the centuries !?
We stand today facing the temptation which
comes from the possibility of rapidly accumulated
wealth. What right have we to anticipate that
TIE same result will not follow il we pursue the
same course OF taking what we have not fully
earned?
Our Present Form OF Government.
The problem we have sought to work out in
this nation is that of government of and by and
for the people. great nation upon that princi-
pie seems possible only under federal system. a
system which regulates all matters Of local interest
to the several states and exercises through the ma
tiona government only those powers and func-
lions which make for the general welfare. We
have wonderfully prospered in administering such
system in a compact. continental territory, each
part Of which has been possessed and controlled
by race capable Of self government.
"Dutyo and "Destiny" Divided.