The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-21
BURTON'S SPEECH.
CONTINUED from First Page.)


this question will come a remedy for
all the evils connected with corpora
lions; and the party of progress, the
party Of deeds, the Republican party,
is the one that must be looked to to
enact such legislation as is necessary;
for no hope of relief can come from the
Democratic party, which for forty years
has done nothing but find fault, and
proposed nothing, except plans for get
ting Office.
"A volunteer army answers the call
of our president, and rushed with hot
haste to Cuba. 1t was made up from all
parts of the country and from all
classes, the rich and the poor the
white and the black, the Jew and the
Gentile, the foreign born and the ma
tive, the Indian and the cowboy from
the west and the millionaire from the
east Congress unanimously voted
money and the nation with one voice
urged on our soldiers in their struggle
of men for mankind. Under the lead
ership of Shafter, Lawton, Wheeler,
Woods and your own gallant Roosevelt.
Santiago is soon invested; Sampson and
Schley destroy the Spanish fleet off the
Cuban coast and Santiago surrenderS.
In less than four months the war is
over. But many things happened while
it lasted that were revelation to US
all. No sooner had Dewey won his bril-
liant victory in Manila bay than we
heard a growI from the Russian bear,
saw the teeth of Germany and the
lowering face of France. A glance at
the situation tells us the meaning of
all this. 1t was plain TO them, as 1t
was to US, that if great nation like
ours should own the Philippine islands
it would command the trade of the five
hundred millions of As1aIics near by.
Russia, Germany and France had spent
millions of money and exhausted di-
plomacy to get this trade. Before the
war closed the Oregon sailed around the
Horn; this was an object lesson to the
country. The Nicaragua canal had
been talked of for years; now it is plan
that it must be constructed without
further delay. In the preliminary ar
engagements for peace freedom is given
Cuba and Porto Rico is ceded to this
country.
1.-The next question was, What should
be done with the Philippine islands?
The opportunities and the responsible
tise were presented to a Republican ad
ministration, and right brG~<rely was
the question met. Our flag had been
raised in that far-away country and
there it should remain forever aid upon
this proposition we go confidently to
the country, believing that our party
will be sustained. The war had re-
united US as a people. Sons of the
men who wore the blue and sons of
those who wore the gray We'd with
each other in the support of our flag.
The nations of the world uncovered at
the exhibition of our prowess on land
everywhere. We have secured the
commerce of five hundred millions of
people and the twentieth century opens
with prospective glory for our coun-
try that was never dreamed OF in the
past. When we rendered our blood and
treasure to succor Cuba we expected
nothing of all this; we did our duty,
and doing it we builded better then we
knew. We struck for humanity but in
the vigorous language of the Washing
ton Post, we struck it rich But Bryan
says we exalt the dollar above the man
if we hold on to the great national ad-
vantage that has come to US.
L know that Bryan ridicules the idea
that an overruling providence had any
thing to do in directing our course in
the Spanish war, and 1 know
how practical and earthly are political
parties; it may have been all an ac-
cident, that we came so suddenly and
unexpectedly face to face with the mar
Vicious opportunities that now lie be-
fore US. 1t may be that He whom we
are taught to believe numbers the very
hairs of our heads and takes not of the
falling Of the sparrow left this and
other nations affected by that war to
blind fate, for I know and we all know.
that it was not seen or devised by man.
1t may be the hand of God is not in it;
but for one / do not, l cannot believe
it. Hugo, after carefully surveying the
field of Waterloo inch by inch, had to
turn his eye toward the sky to find
an explanation for Napoleon's defeat.
When we remember the holy inspira-
ton that led US to succor Cuba and
see the splendid results that followed
our acts, who will not believe that we
were and are but the instruments in
the hands of God to carry forward the
blessings of our better civilization and
a knowledge of our wiser laws to the
benighted millions in the Orient.
God moves in a mysterious way his
wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps on the sea and
rides 11nnn the storm ;,