The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1900-08-31
The Danger of Imperialism.

THE following editorial from the
Outlook OF August IL is reprinted by
The TIMES in full. 1t is one of the best
articles, either editorial or otherwise,
which has appeared in any periodical
or magazine on the subject and is full
of food for sober thot on the part of all
American citizens. There is, according
to this paper, always danger to be
feared by this country from Imperialism
but the article tells 1t for itself. 1t is
perhaps not necessary to say that the
Outlook is an independent paper in
politics and fearless in speaking its
mind whether it is the democratic or
the republican party that gets struck
but that is one reason why it is one of
the very foremost family religious
newspapers in America today. The
TINES hopes that every one of its read
ers. both democratic and republican,
will carefully read the entire article
That there is possible danger of i'm
perialism in America we are not in
clined to deny. That republics have
generally given place to empires, that
the people have lost whatever political
power they possessed, and that govern.
ment of the many has become govern
ment of the few or of the one is historic
ally true. But he who would take
warning from history should examine
it sufficiently to learn what its warning
is; he should not be content with the
general fact that republics have been
short-lived; he should consider what is
the process by which they have been
transformed into empires. 1t is not
possible in brief editorial article to
conduct such historical study; it must
suffice to indicate the principle to
which such a study conducts-this,
namely, that the transition from a re-
public to an empire has been generally,
i not always, through a period of
anarchy.
1t would be difficult to name any
case in which absolutism has been
a gradual and unconscious evolution
from democracy. Lower and simpler
forms of government have sometimes
passed into an imperial form without
passing through democracy; but democ-
racy has rarely if ever passed into an
empire except through anarchy and
revolution. Greece experienced long
and tragic period of what we may call
States rights and of internecine wars
between the various States before the
Macedonian Empire was founded upon
the ruins of her free institutions. The
wars of Marius and Sulla devastated
Rome before she accepted in exchange
for anarchy and civil war the strong
rule of julius Cesar. The jeaIousies of
the Italian cities and the rivalries of
the Italian families, and the no.govern.
ment which they produced with "the
poisoned cup and the hidden stiletto,"
prepared the way for the reign of the
tyrants. In France, there would have
been no Napoleonic Empire if there
had been no Red Terror; in England.
no restoration of the Stuarts if there
had been no Long Parliament and no
factional fights between rival parties
in the Commonwealth.
These historical events all point in
one direction; they all have one mean
ing; it ought not to be difficult to under
stand their lesson. The danger of i'm
perliasm in America is not from a
paltry standing army of one hundred
thousand men; it is not from the adop-
ton of colonial policy extending
over other free countries the protection
of our fag-protection alike from foes
without and from disorder within; it is
not from gradual usurpation of power
by the President of the United States;
1t is not from Capitalization in any
form. The danger is to be looked for
in exactly the opposite direction. 1t is
threatened, if at all, by decentralization,
by excessive individualism. by weak
ness in the Government, by paltering
with the mob, by the forces of popular
discomfort melted sometimes by dema.
gogues, sometimes by honest enthus-
lasts, into passion, and united for fac
tional ends. If ever democracy is
overthrown in America, it will be be-
cause the Government is too weak, not
because 1t is too strong. The way to
ensure the permanence of democracy
is to Strengthen its governmental
powers.
To illustrate; Recently in the history
of this country successive mobs have
attempted to take control of the rail-
roads and determine what trains might
rum to occupy Pittsburg, Chicago,
Brooklyn, Cleveland, and st. Louis and
prevent free carriage in the public
Streets to lay siege to the iron mills at
Homestead and determine who might
enter and who might not; and in count
less cases to prevent by force free
Americans from working for such
wages and on such conditions as they
were willing to accept. OF all law, mob
law is the worst. Any government is
better than no government. The despot
ism of Russian bureaucracy is pref