Evening journal., 1900-07-06

recently out TWO ports were open TO
J trade. With order restored throughout
4 the archipelago, and with the inhabi-
tants engaged in the avocauons of
! peace, the Philippine Islanders will be
n numbered among the best customers
of the United States Furthermore,
the Philippines will be the stepping
stone to the commerce OF the East. The
\ administration has realized from the
hrst the necessity of the expansion of
j American markets abroad, and espe-
! cially in Asia. Geographically, the
/ United States is more favorably stu
ated with reference to the trade OF the
J Orient than are the nations OF Europe.
Hawaii Guam and the Philippines lie
in the path of American commerce in
China. They will form stopping-places
in time of peace and harbors of refuge
and bases Of naval activity in time of
war. The president has noted the ef-
forts OF European nations to extend
their spheres Of influence in China. and
one OF the most important achievements
OF the administration has been the sue
/ cess OF Secretary Hay in securing the
pledge Of European nations TO main
tain there the open Door,
If the United States are to secure the
greatest benefits from their growing
foreign commerce, a large percentage
toi that commerce must be carried inI
American bottoms under the American
nag. To bring this about the Republi-
can party favors such legislationt as
VIII best lead to the development of
American shipbuilding and American
shipowning Here again. the matter
OF wages enters largely into the prob
lem. Not only are workmen in Amer
/ lean shipyards better paid than those
IN similar establishments abroad. but
tne wages of officers and seamen on
American merchant ships are much
higher than in any other merchant
marine in the world. If American ships1
are to compete successfully for the
ocean-carrying trade such legislation
must be enacted as Will meet these
wage conditions.
An important factor in the CONNER
cial development of the United States
will be the construction of a trans
lsthmian canal which will not only
bring the eastern and western coasts
OF the United States into closer rela-
tions, but shorten the distance from
the Atlantic and the Gulf to the Orient.
and from the Pacific to Europe To
such canal the party pledged itself in
1896. Substantial progress has already
been made by the president and Con-
gress toward carrying out that pledge
and there is no doubt that when Con-
gress reassembles in December, with
the full report OF the Walker Commits
sion, before 1t, final legislative action
will be taken.
The attitude Of the opposition to-
ward territorial expansion must be
one OF half-hearted negation, and that
too, with a widely divided sentiment
In their own ranks. entirely in op-
position to their traditional policy.
/ They will, as a matter Of form. con-
denim everything the Republican party
has done. and everything it proposes
/ TO do, without having any practical
polics' 20 put forward as a substitute
/ Forgetting the examples OF Thomas
I Jefferson. and Andrew Jackson. they
deny the constitutional power of the
/ United States to perform the duties
with which IL is confronted They take
| their stand on the doctrine that all
thel limitations of the Constitution ex-
| tend OF their own force into all terri
tory subject to the Jurisdiction of the
| United States, and maintain that the
/ Legislative power Of Congress as to the
new possessions is restricted bya the
/ limitations placed upon that power as
respects the United States. At every
step taken by the Republicans toward
/ the establishment of government, re-
/ publican in spirit and in form, in the
I insular possessions, they set up the cry
Of Imperialism; but is only a cry, and
when resolved into specification is at
once indefinite and meaningless. They
would have the voters of the country
i believe that it is the policy of the Re
I publican party to hold and govern the
Y insular possessions as Rome held and
governed her provinces, and that vast
armies are to be maintained to uphold
4 imperial dignity abroad and crush out
\ liberty at home; Imperialism and milf
tarism, they cry, are two dangers which
threaten the Republic. The very state
1 ment of this is its refutatiOn. IL is
4 like the cry that the war Of the re-
bellion would saddle the Republic with
a standing army. whereas the war was
hardly over before our soldiers were
back in their homes and workshops
The safeguard against all these imag-
/ ined dangers is IN the character of ouI
{ American institutions, under which the
= citizen is always supreme, and the In
, terests and bulwarks of civil life al
/ ways and inevitably dominate any
! military organization. Conditions in
the islands will soon be such that order
= can be maintained by a comparatively
small force of American troops assisted
r by the native police.
S On the trust issue the Republicans
=. advocate a policy Of correcting the
= evils which grow from combinations
y of corporations and great aggregation'
S of capital without at the same time
restricting legitimate enterprise. KEN
n within proper bounds-and this should
a he done by the most resolute legisla'
y ton wherever necessary-large corpor
4 ations may he made alike beneficial e
. the stockholders, to their emDloyei
e and to the consumers Of their products
u The large corporation. with its abilii!
,. to establish agencies throughout th'
Al. 80 n