The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-15

rama are covered with the symbols OF awakened
enterprise and wealth aud industry, In har.
fnonious compact, have day by day pushed far.
ther out the boundaries OF activity. To satisfy
his daily needs no longer SATISFIES the Americans
ambition, but schools and churches, libraries and
halls OF art are rising everywhere as monuments
to his genius and prosperity. Never, even in
this countrys marvellous history, have the bcnc.
nts OF peace been more general and abundant.
But not alone in the fruits Of peace do the
glories Of the present time appear. Within the
last two years we have encountered the peris
OF war. and through that supreme and fiery test
we marched with such strength and courage
that the praises Of American arms are ringing
round the world.
And at this momentous point In their career
tne American people are now standing They
have reached the time when the commission Is.
! sued four years ago to the Republican party
| Is about to expire, and they must determine
| whether 1t shall be extended or revoked. In
their deliberations they must not forget that
all the grand results I have described did not
| come about by chance; neither were they fore.
| ordained. The benefits Of society and govern.
ment do not descend from the clouds like rain,
but rather like the products Of the earth. they
| spring and grow by toll and thoughtful purpose.
There was nothing here in '96 that was not here
In '92, and yet the last administration was to
this like the desert to the fertile plain. What
''auc tHe cHdHgcl IL uiu not come by accident.
| 1t came through the restoration Of that policy
| which lifted men from their backs and put them
on their feet. II came through that confidence
which aroused and inspired the whole country
when 1t saw one man enter Washington who be.
| 1ievcd and acted and expressed the highest pur.
poses OF his countrymen, and another man retire
who knew not what lie thought, but blundcred
as he went. 1t came through the deep convic.
tion that while Mckinley was president, no mat.
ter who might be second, America would be
hrst And since that Gay no reasonable hope
which then sprung up, no honest enterprise en-.
barked upon, has failed to feel the steady, help.
ful influence Of the national policy.
But there is kind Of human disposition which
seems, when 1t is prosperous. to forget when
1t was not; to see in the things it has smaller
value than in the things it covets; to seek and
magnify small misfortunes. even though the
scarcher be loaded with advantages for which
he never dared to hope. This disposition is now
abroad with four complaints against the national
Administrations; the Philippine war. the Ameri.
can trust, the limited coinage OF silver and the
undue power OF the courts But before he in
ficts penalty or withdraws his support, he
should first fix the responsibility, and glance
| at the recent past will show that for the origin
| OF the war now in progress the present admins
traton is not to blame. In the spring of 1898
the war feeling in this country was we'll nigh
| through all the villages and out to the remote
and quiet farms, and no class or condition was
| free from its impctuous fire. The flag had been
| dehed. the Maine had been sunk, and the cry
went through the country, like the flash Of light
| ming. to avenge the American sailors who slept
in the harbor Of Havana. In the midst of that
memorable excitement there was hardly one who
| reckoned up the cost of the revenge which he
| demanded, or followed through to the end the
frightfu possibilities of the war There is no in.
| fuence that sobers the Judgment and restrains
| the ardor like the knowledge Of responsibility
| Those who believe their own duty is discharged
| when task is begun will act with create,
| haste than those who must carry that task to
| its completion. The President Of the United
| States, standing at the spot where all the tor
rents gathered, resisting greater pressure than
| any president, save one, had ever done before:
| exhibited power of self.command, a clear and
| accurate conception of his duty which will
| place and hold him among the great presidents
| of the republic.
%
| The denunciations heaped upon him then for
| not beginning unprepared a war with Spain were
| no less terrific than those which shower upon
| him now for not receding from the complications
| which that war entaied. He would have been
| guilty had he Welded then; he would be no less
guilty il he yielded now. The policies Of govern.
| ment must be determined not at the curbstone
but at the council table. The war with Spain
| was the beginning; the war with the Philippines
| is the end, but both are inseparable parts Of
| that policy to which the American people have
| pledged their sacred honor, and the president
of the United States will keep the pledge There
has been no step in all the struggle that has not
been, as far as safety would allow submitted
| to the knowledge of the people, and the present
| conduct of the war is in complete accord with
| the peoples latest manifesto, delivered through
their representatives in congress- when the treaty
| of peace with Spain was ratified. That treaty
| said: "Spain cedes to the United States the
| archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, Z"
| and it also said: "The United States will pay
| to Spain the sum OF twenty million dollars" and
that treaty was ratified by the senate, and that
| twcnfy millions Was voted nv tho House and
| paid, and those islands then became and are
| the property of the United States Was 1t in.
tended by that treaty that this government
| should then Withdraw from the islands it had
| ACQUIRED and leave them in chaos and ins,,rrec-
ton? No one so construed it then no one so
construes it now, and whatever you may think
| of your present complications, you are bound by
every step in the controversy to stand your
| ground War is not a holiday to be begun and
ended as fancy or convenience may decide. 1t
| contains the gravest possibilities known in h,,.
| man affairs, Those who enter it must he prc.
| pared either for defeat or victory, for loss or
| conquest and as they must bear the humiliation
| of defeat and loss, so must they also bear the
responsibilities of victory. We are in our pres.
| ent position because our own performances and
the uncomfortable tide of human events have
swept us there. We shall deal with that position
| in a sprit of fairness and liberality but there
| will he nowhere in it the element OF cowardice
or evasion. We have clothed the president with
| the mower to carry out our DESIRES and he has
| SO far acted within the spirit OF his commits.
sion The purpose of the president is the pur.