Kootenai County Republican. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1899-1903, 1900-11-02
4 CEn1uUY'S CROW1n
OF THE COUNTRY.
History OF National Expansion
from JeffcrsOn's Time.
The Life OF the Nation, Like That OF an
Individual. Depends Upon Its Ability
10 Develop and Grow.

Au sobtb. hthVVb yV"i" ''''
who reads the daily papers. said to his
father. who Is a student OF politics:
Father. what is the meaning OF I'm
perialism' A. used In the Democratic
platforms and hy Democratic speakers.
particularly Mr.. Bryan; and what do
you mean by sxpansionT
The father answered: my boy. ',mpe
r;alism. correctly defined. means per
tanning To an empire The use OF Il, as
they intend II to apply by the party you
speak of. 10 pure demagogy-a clap
trap effort TO catch votes In the coming
election. These men have erected an air
castle and are pel,ing 1t with words. But
few Of the men OF brains who use this
term. ss applied to the conditions In this
country. believe Il TO be true or correct
They have a mistaken idea that they
can scare the American people by pro-
claiming against a bugaboo Of their own
| creation. In this they are mistaken. The
American voter Is quick to detect hum
bug and 10 not easily scared even at the
threat Of real evils. 1t Ii possible that
| some OF those men really believe what
| they say on this subject. II they do
| they are Ia the unfortunate position Of
those Of whom 1t is said. they believe
| 4 lie 10 be- damned for these men will
be politically damned At the election In
| November. Outside Of these parties
| there are some declaring against 'impe-
rialism' who are misied by diseased i'm
aginations and who. while being honest.
, are simply foolish"
"well. father. what do you mean by
expansion z
| IL use the word In Its ordinary sense.
| my boy. which Is the enlargement of sur.
face"
| Eyes. I underwtand that, but this is
political term AS used now. Does 1t mean
the enlargement OF the surface Of the
country
Certainly, and but for expansion this
country would have been very small in
deed"
when did II begin to expandf Who
was the first cxpansionistY'
Look at the map Of the United States
and you viii see that the colonies OF
Great Britain which revolted in 1876
were Massachusetts, which included
Maine; New Hampshire. Connecticut,
Rhode Island. New York, which with
New Hampshire included Vermont; New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware. Mary
land, Virginia. which included Kentucky,
North Carolina, which claimed Tcnues-
see. South Carolina and Georgia All
these colonies, with the outlying terri.
tories claimed by them, had only 4s2.36l
square miles. with q population OF about
3,OOO.OOO. just before the Revolution
George Washington, then a colonel OF
virginia militia. was the first. expansion
ist. lie aided In driving the French ont
Of Fort buquesne, where Pittsburg now
stands. helped in annexing to Virginia
NIL the territory which now comprises
the States OF Ohio. Indiana. Illinois.
Michigan and Wisconsin. There were
no white inhabitants save u few French
on the lakes and Ia illinois, These
States cover 2S3. 1901 square miles, about
three. hfths OF the area OF the colonies
Al the taking Of the census Of 1870. ten
years ago, they had = population Of IL,
Adi SIG aud wealth valued at xl5.Otl,
d3o.a22 Washington's expansion proved
TO be- very valuable one"
Who WAS the next expansionist, and
what did he dof'
Thomas jefferson was the next. In
| 6l'h. teNsp. hc puTCuuStu the VtEfttDtA
Of Louisiana from France. Look at that
large map. All the States and territories
which you see west OF the Mississippi
river To that irregular line which extends
from the Gulf OF Mexico to the Cana
dian border, near the Pacific ocean. wer,
Included In this purchase. Al the time
the purchase was made II was declared
valueless. and jefferson was denounced
| hltt.rlV hv th. A. Al.
MS Mckinley IL now~-in fact. more biz
terly, In 1910. the first census after til,
purchase. the entire civilized populnt ion
was 7T.soi. The area OF this purchas,
was pIt.sI3 square miles. more than
double that OF the original colonies, and
comprised what IL now the States OF
Louisiana, Arkansas. Missouri. Iowa,
Minnesota. North aud South Dakota, Ne
hrsska. Kansas, part o. Colorado. nearly
all Of Wyoming. nearly all OF Montana
! the Indian Territory aud the rerritor, q,
Oklahoma, In iSs0 the population a,
} ths>. States was i2.oas. S,,s and thrti
wealth was sii,aoa, 3a2. $40. eleven Hill
hon 1--we hundred aud ninciy.nve million
thr.e hundred aud hfs two thousand
Ave hundred and forty dollars. Ttcs,
States ia iN,s furnished over ouc-hsi,
the wheat and nearly one-hslf the corr
crop II the country. and this year vii
do sill better. They have nearly one
third Of the total railway mileage ana
are great produe~r. OF cattle sheen
hogs aud horses. Aud yet their pr",lu,,
tvs capacity Is in its infancy Wher
irrigation Is established a. Ii soon Nil
H.. the products VI thes, States viii h,
doubled ~ trlplsd. And there i one al
vantage ~ this purchase thar can ney.,
b. ssrnNfc,i in money. whtrh !. tn, Gun
trel Of tbs MissisStppi river. jefferson,
purchase has tnrarsi opt 10 b. a good one
notwithstanding the hitter opposition !,
its caasummation
s ffu he eonsiaurdJ