The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-23
The Commercial Phase Of
Imperialism.
A PHILOSOPHIC ARGUMENT.
Shall Our Government Be a Re.
public or an Empirep
WHAT IMPERIALISM WILL ENTAIL.

Vast Fleets and Armies Must BE
Bni1t and Raised - Our Farmers
and Workers Would Be Compelled
to Compete With the Products and
Labor of China and Siberia-Capi-
tai VIII Go Where Labor Is Cheap
and Raw Material Abundant - A
Careful Study of Great Question.
Especial Washington letter.
One of the very ablest of the young
Democrats in congress is the Hon. Will
liam M. Howard of Georgia. He pos.
sesses as fine judicial and analytical
mind as does any other man in public
life. His besetting sin is his modesty,
which, perhaps, in this age of brass
ought to be accounted a virtue. He is
a fine illustration of the truth of the
old adage that still water runs deep"
He represents the district formerly rep
resented by Judge Lawson, who was
universally regarded as one of the
ablest men in the house.
i In the Fifty-fifth congress Howard
and l were both placed on the great
committee on foreign affairs by Hon.
Thomas Bracket Reed; consequently
/ got acquainted with him at an early
day in his congressional career and
learned to value his great qualities at
their true worth. He is very much dis
posed to hide his light under bushel,
but gradually members on both sides
of the house are coming to understand
that he is one of the really forceful
characters in congress. In the Porto
Rican debate the subject was discussed
from every conceivable standpoint ex-
cept the commercial. Howard made a
great speech on the commercial phase
of imperialism:
"Mr. Chairman, we are now perhaps
we'll beyond the sentimental stage of
our victory over Spain, and thoughtful
people are no longer willing to solve
the problems that confront us as the
legacy of that war by the patriotic eX-
clamation, Who will haul down the
flag? nor will they accept as an accu-
rate measurement of our responsible
ties the mystical solution that it is
destiny
sw Our Motives Honorable.
whether the inhabitants of Porto
Rico and the Philippine Islands are cit
liens of the United States. or whether
the constitution guarantees to them
Cf n1s
whether the tariff and excise tax laws
apply equally to all the territory of the
United States, or whether these islands
may be held perpetually as colonies
without the right of statehood, and
many other problems not yet suggested
by this new and strange relation, alien
to the spirit of 1776 and repugnant to
the Declaration of Independence and
unHrovided for in the constitution, are
questions too vitali too moInentous, to
be solved withlnhrases.
i 1.-THE decisionstO so to warfwiths Spain
was suddenly made Notwithstanding
the long continued existence of the
causes which we proclaimed as justify
ing hostilities, and the public mind was
as little prepared for the ready compre-
hension of the consequences of victory
as was our government for the conflict,
and it was therefore but natural that
the hysteria of our exultation should
be prolonged by mysticism on the part
of those who conceived that the golden
opportunity was present to convert a
war begun for humanity into one of
conquest for commercial gain. The
change of purpose was as radical as it
was sudden and involved our plighted
faith to the world and with each other.
''No matter that Europe was not de-
ceived. We ourselves believed that our
motives were honorable and that we
fought to restore peace and establish
liberty where despotism was reveling
in a carnival of death. In July, when
the blood of our heroes was yet wet on
San Juan hill, we spurned the sugges-
ton of indemnity as a faint upon our
honor, and in December, at Paris, we
were sitting the protest of our pros
trate foe with bride Of gold that Eu-
rope might not hear her cries while we
stripped her of the Philippines. 1t is
no wonder, then, that the succeeding
chapter in our history was written in
the Delphic phrases. who will haul
down the flag? 1t is our destiny and
God has given them to u.s.
''It is not my purpose to enter at this
time into a discussion of any of the
problems which the permanent reten-
ton of Porto Rico and the Philippines
involves except that of commercial ex-
pansion. There are now many people
in the United States who believe they
see in the annexation of Cuba and the
permanent retention of Porto Rico and
the Philippines vast opportunities for
the expansion of our commerce and
who for the sake Of this supposed adj
vantage will justify and defend a poll
cy which results in the permanent re-
tention of these islands.
Republic or Empires
"WaiviEg all considerations of right
and wrong involved in the policy of re-
tention and passing the question of the
constitutional power to maintain CO.
lonial system and of the resultant eff
feet on our republican form of govern