The St. Johns herald., 1900-03-24
AN AGE OF CONQUEST
Rapid Growth Of the United States
 Within Its Own Confines.
HeAry M. StsnleS on the Present and Future of Oar Great NatiOR- Progress Toward
 Empire.


 the United States, within the confines of cur own continent, Sir Henry Nj. Stanley, in an article on 'Angio-Saxon Responsibilities" says:
 There is nothing so very strange about it. While still young the nation showed extraordinary expansive pow CT. It's pioneers were the boldest of tke species Neither Frenchman nor scalp ing Indian could stay their progress. Step by step they pressed on, and were gallantly followed by the vanguard of the nation, until, in the course of time, they had spread far and wide in multi tudes over the once uppeopled wastes" :"
 Then he continues:
 To-day the nation numbers over TO- eco,eoo. True, it is but elim popvla- ton for so vast a region, compared to what we see in crowded Europe. We must not, however, measure the capac- fly of these millions by mere numbers, but in organization, In the power Of combining for @ common purpose and In the prosecution Of big enterprises. Treble their number of ordinary Euro peans could not have surpassed them in what they have done.
 "The story of their achievements reads like an epic of the heroic age. Itappears as though the bIgress Of their noun tains, their plains and their rivers and sweet water seas had impressed itself on them. Their wheat felds, their o~oAa -IJ~ end <ha;r ,>o -i,. ara oc q soa Ia unknown in any other continent. Their railway mileage exceeds that of united Europe, inclusive of Great Brit ain, by 25,o00 miles, and the capital in- volred amounts to the colossal sum of $i2, ,00O, ,ooo, ,ooo. So that, large as the superficial area of their territory may be, these To,000,o0o of brainy people most naturally have begun to frd Ii getting too narrow for their concep- tions, sRd 10 think of investing their surplus money and energies in some thing else than railroads. Also in point of numbers. rropsrtionate to aree, it will be seen upoI studying the sub ject that they have arrived pretty near ly to what the English had done before they sallied from these islands to found Q greater Britain. Then, again, we find that hate of SpeLish cruelty has led them 10 venture abroad, just as Spanish greed, 6igotry and the inquisition in- cited our forefathers in the time st Elizabeth 10 go out on the high seas ard give battle to Spain. And. prob ably, as in old time, there were minor end less noble motives underlying our hate, So we should discover, if we took pains, that America was animated by similar desirce.
 ''It needs no prophet to foretell that our progress toward empire will be imi- tated still further. The British empire coneists of new countries that have been pcopled by cmigrants and com mercial agents from our shores, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; Of India, which has been slowly gained by conquest; of islands that fell to us in political wars; of Af- rican territories which were absorbed through the necessity of saving irora the general scramble portion that should be free to commerce. It is un- likely that Americans will acquire col onies by emigration in the manner We did, because there are no uIinhabittd regions available, CT that they can an nex territories with the consent Of their inhabitants as we annexed Nyassa Land and Uganda, because there are none left, but the acquisition of territory by conquest will always remain open 10 the powerful and aggressive, and it is to be feared that no peace conference can provide against the contingency.
 "It is by that method of conquest that the Americans are destined 10 still greater dominion. There are nations periodically dying, and they offer strong temptations and, unfortunately, they become more and more impolitic as they become weaker. Fate often pro- vides the opportunities. IL braces the strong nation and benumbs the fac ulties of the weak. It inspires that which seeks inspiration and paralyzes the other. 1t furnishes wisdom and strength to one ard breeds confusion md diScord in that destined to doom. You have but to study the worlds map to find that at least four nations seem marked by fate to provide prey for the strong. America must be num- bered among the strongest, and it is her nature to recognize opportunities and to avail herself of tbem.-Outlook.