Willmar tribune., 1900-10-20

tent with our own country. They want
more worlds to conquer. They want to
control populations that have less
power Of resistance than the white
racs--iands where their dominion may
be complete, and so, taking advantage
OF the conditions growing out Of the
Spanish-American war, they are now
endeavoring to establish imperialism
by fastening upon our institutions ,
colonial system and large standing !,
army.
Our people know intuitively that
there is menace and danger in this
new departure. To overcome this i,
feeling they appeal to the patriotism,
to the national pride, and to the self
lshness of the people. They say that
the glory of our flag and the prestige
of our name demand it. They say
that, besides, there is money in it.
This latter they rely upon as their
most convincing argument. Did the
Spanish people find imperialism prof
table? Did their colonial empire tend |
to the upbuilding of their Industries, i
their trade, and their progress? On
the contrary, it had the opposite ef-
feet. From being the most powerful
state of Christendom, the most enlight-
ened and in many respects the most
progressive, before it embarked in
the venture of colonial empire, it's
power, its resources and it's people
had been dragged down to the lowest
depths of degradation before we forced
it to abandon the system. Shall we
disregard the example of Spain and
and adopt the very system that de-
stroyed her power and impoverished
her people?
Nations can grow and expand, as
ours has, to their political and eco
nomic advantage. But such national
growth always has been, and always
will be, through the occupation and
acquisition OF territory not already
occupied by dense population, and
blythe planting therein of the expand
AA1o 1DcAoA1 OVu pCOplc duu lGS own
institutions. Such was our expansion
over the territory acquired from Spain
in the southern part of our country,
and from France in the south and to
the west OF US. The same is true of
Alaska. But the white race never has
and never can permanently occupy
and inhabit land within the tropics.
INTEGRAL PARTS, NEVER.
We can never hope to make the Phil
ippine islands integral parts Of our
Union, occupied by people Of our race,
with our political and social ideals, as
we have in Florida, Louisiana, and Cal
ifornia. 0u- occupation Of these
islands will be military and the govern
ment colonial, thus converting our cwn
institutions from republic, resting
upon manhood suffrage, governed by
laws Of the peoples own making, in
other words, governed by the consent
of the governed, to military empire.
Such changes in the institutions of
nations in the past have always
proven destructive of the liberties of
the people, and in the end, of their ma
tional existence. This historical fact
is we'll expressed by Froude, the his
torian, in his Introduction to his
"Life of Cesar" He says:
'"To the student of political history,
and to the English student above all
others, the conversion of the Roman J
republic into a military empire, COM
mands peculiar interest. Notwith-
standing many differences, the English
and the Romans essentially resemble
one another. The early Romans pos
sessed the faculty of self-government
beyond any people of whom we have
historical knowledge, with the one ex-
ception of ourselves. In virtue of
their temporal freedom, they became
the most powerful nation in the known
world, and their liberties perished
only when Rome became mistress of |
conquered races, to whom she was un-
able or unwilling to extend her privi- !
leges:
f.. ''lf there be one lesson which his
tory teaches it is this, that free ma
tions cannot govern subject provinces.
u they are unable Or unwilling to sd-
nit their dependencies to share in
their own constitution. the constttu-
tion itself will fall in pieces from more |
Incompetence for it's duties."
The rightfulness of the proposition I
to govern other peoples against their
will ought not to be open for discus
sion by the American people,, whose
government rests upon the PROPOSE
tion that government by force, and
not instituted by the consent of the
governed, is tyranny. The only an
swer that we can get to this PROPOSE :