The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-08-04
BEST DEFINITIONS
DF IMPERIALISM, MlLITARlSM AND
DESPOTIsM ARE GIVEN.
llnpe riallsm Means to This Peace
farc-LincOln, Webster and Others
Are Quoted and Their Opinions
are Given-A Strong Indictment.

Are 0uOted and Their Opinions
Of like occurrences in the Past
are Given-A Strong Indictment.
Imperialism, backed up by militarism,
will undoubtedly be one Of the main
issues Of the coming presidential cam
gaign. The Republicans will attempt
to show that Imperialism Is necessary
to the perpetuation of our institutions,
while the Democrats will have no trou-
BILE in proving that it is a menace to
any stable government, more especially
a constitutional government like ours.
AS the Republicans, many Of the them,
take exceptions to the term, imperial
ISM as used to express present polit-
ical tendencies. few words in explain
alton may be desirable. These we give
in the language Of Stephen H. Taft of
Santa Monica; Cal, writing for the
Forward Movement Herald, who starts
his statement with the words of Presi-
dent Lincoln:
When a man governs himself, that
is free government: but when he gov
erns another man without his consent,
that is despotism.' Umperialism.)
"'No man or nation Is good enough
to govern another man or nation with
out their consent
Those who deny freedom to others.
deserve it not long for themselves, and
under the rule of just God. cannot
long retain it,
THE republic of America was found
ed upon the principles set forth in the
Declaration of Independence. Our gov
ernment, under President McKinley's
administration, has grievously violated
those fundamental principles, and is,
today, trampling them under foot. This
departure from precedents and from
the principles of free government has
been named Imperialism. If what Mr..
Lincoln says in my third quotation is
true (and that it is all history attests),
then is there occasion for all and more
than all the alarm felt by anti-impe-
rialists
without further introduction 1 ask
your attention to the evidence I shall
present of the truth of my Indictment
found in the history of the Philippine
war.
ITO carry the flag to distant land,
there to wave over slaves or a subject
people is imperialism.
ITO extend government over a peo-
pie and claim thatsthe constitutionpdoes
! not control and make plain our relation
To- and our tluty ward thes people n.
y \ 81 Io demand at c6nnon's mouth the
S uncondi ditional surrender to our author.
1ty of q people alien to us In location
and civilization, is imperialism.
ITO denounce as disloyal and deserv-
Ing Of contempt If not of imprisonment,
all who criticize the policy Of an amin
istration, is imperialism.
To seek to organize a large army
(always menace to a republic) is i'm
perialism.
of all these departures from the
faith Of the fathers and the sacred
traditions of the nation, the present
administration stands proven guilty.
The general purpose Of Imperialism is
impressively set forth by Congressman
Grosvenor, of Ohio, one of the admins
tratlon party, who, when discussing the
acquisition of the Philippines, said: we
have got them and make all the money
out of them we cam
THE spirit Of imperialism is revealed
In its false representations regarding
the Filipinos and their leaders; in its
brutal assumption Of authority over a
people struggling to be free and in the
contempt with which it regards not
only the people it is seeking to subju-
gate. but also every one who claims
and exercises the right to think and
speak as free man, when in so doing
he is led to take exception to its auto
cratic assumption.
THE imperialists speak most con:
temptuously Of the anti-imperialists
and denounce them as wanting in COM
prehensive craftsmanship. Will these
wise critics pause to hear what Daniel
Webster said in the United States SEN
ate in March, 1S4S?
AN arbitrary, government may have
territorial governments in distant ter:
ritories by different laws and different
systems. Russia may govern the
Ukraine and the Caucasus and Kan.
chatka by different codes or ukases
We can do no such thing. They mus
be of us-part of us-or else estranged
l think I see, then, in progress wha
is to disfgure and deform the consti
tuition. I think l see a cours
adopted that is likely to turn the con
stitution under which we live into a de
formed monster-g government, no
founded on popular representation, bu
founded in the grossest inequalities
and I think if it go on for there is grea
danger that it will go on, that this gov
ernment will be broken up
Justice Brewer says: 4 object t
our having colouies because it antagon
ICES the principles on which govern
ment was founded and which have con
trolled it's life up to the present time
1.-The inha bitants Of Porto Rico halle
our army with joy, and were promise
by Gen.. Miles all the privileges c
American citizens: and this was fO
lowed by d like promise from the pres
ident, seconded by the secretary of wa
both of whom declared it to be the so
emn duty Of the government to kee
faith with them. But of what accour