Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-09-01
Imperialism,

4
The following article appeared in
a recent issue of the ST. Louis Post
Dispatch. 1t is from the pen of SEN
ator Pettigrew, of South Dakota.
1t is lengthy, but. The. ARGUS
thinks. worth producing, and it is as
follows:
Within the past thirty years the
wealth of the United States, which
was once fairly distributed. has been
accumulated in the hands of a few,
so that. according to the last census.
$50, 900 men own so. 900, 900. 900. or
over three-fourths of the wealth of
this country. while 81 per cent of the
population practically have no prop
erty at all and do not own their own
homes.
1t would naturally be supposed that
the 48 per cent of the people who still
have an interest in the property of the
nation would be the governing classes.
Recent events, however. point unmis-
takably tc the fact that the $50, 200
have com bined with the 90 per cent
of our population who have no prop
erty, and by gaining control of great
and aforetime patriotic political or
ganization have usurped the functions
of government and established plu-
/ tocracy.
| Among all monarchies of the past.
whenever all power and all property
have been gathered into the hands OF
the few. and discomfort appears among
the masses, it has been the policy to
acquire foreign possessions, to en-
large the army and the navy. to en-
ploy the discontinued and distract their
attention.
The attempt on the part of the
United States to acquire foreign ter
ritory, coming as it does along with
an ever-increasing clamor for the en-
largement of the army and for the
creation of great navy, is sufficient
to alarm patriotic citizens and lead to
an anxious inquiry as to whittier we
are drifting.
Today we have no territory that a
navy is needed to defend. The United
States is so situated that she can say
whether she will have peace or war.
We possess no territory that can be
acquired or held by foreign foe. even
if we owned not a single ship. aud no
nation. however great and strong. can
gain any advantage by war with us.
But the moment we acquire distant
possessions we must build a navy to
defend them. for in case of war these
possessions would be first attacked and
taken from us. France. England and
Germany have possessions scattered
all over the world. and those nations
are consequently compelled to main-
L -,
These possessions, in case of war, fur
nish so many points of attack. so
| many embarrassments, so many op-
portunities for national humiliation,
that the strife is to see who can main
tain the greatest fleet upon the sea.
Shall we enter the arena of this con-
test?
From our earliest history we have
insisted that we would engage in no
entangling alliances. We have said
that we would attend to our own af-
fairs and that our interests demanded
that no European country should
gain further focthold upon the West
ern Hemisphere; and so strong has
been our moral position that without
navy we have always been able to
enforce this doctrine.
Throughout our past we have en-
Icountered many propo sitions for the
annexation of tropical countries aud
we resolutely put them behind US,
until judgment was circumvented bv
the Vaccinations of capitalistic COM
binations aud we took forcible pos
session of the Hawaiian islands. The
same influences are now at work to
attach permanently to the United
States the Philippine islands. still
deeper in the realm of the blazing
sea.
Tropical countries produce and
maintain populations much more
dense than countries in the temperate
zone. because it takes less TO clothe
and feed aud care for their people,
because their demands and vents are
less and because of the wonderful
food-producing power of the soil Of
the tropics.
The island of Java has an area no
larger than the state of Iowa. and it
contains $4,000, 900 people. 1t is
reasonable to suppose that the Ha-
wsiian and Philippine islands will
maintain q population in proportion
to their area equal to those of other
tropical countries.
But what kind of population: The
more of them the worse. There is
not colony of European or Anglo
Saxon laborers within twenty-five de-
grees of the equator anywhere on the
globe.
No English, no French, no Ger
mans. no ScandinaviAns, no Russians,
none of the people whose blood flows