, 1900-01-13
JUDGE BEvEREDGE's GRAFTON,

'' N'N HAhAbPihV lutsllOu Ildlt by
Judge Beveredge on Tuesday last in
the United States senate. A few of the
many salient points are given here
with:
This island empire is the last land
I"ii IN all the oceans. If it should prove
a mistake to abandon it, the blunder
once made would prove irretrievable.
II it proves a mistake to hold it, the
error can be corrected when we will;
every other progressive nation stands
ready TO relieve us.
But to hold it will be no mistake.
Our largest trade henceforth must be
with Asia. The Pacific is our ocean.
More and more Europe will manufac-
ture all 1t ~needs-secure from its colo
MES the most it consumes. Where shall
We turn for consumers of our supplies?
Geography nswer the question.
China is u natural customer. She is
nearer to US that to England, Germany
or Russia, the commercial powers of
the present and the future. They have
moved nearer to China by securing
permanent bases on her borders. The
Philippines give us a base at the door
Of all the east. Lines of navigation
from our ports to the Orient and Aus
tralia; from the isthmian canal to
Asia; from all Oriental ports to Aus
tralia, converge at n separate from
the Philippines. They are a se~lf-sup-
porting, dividend-paying fleet, perma-
nently anchored at a spot selected by
the strategy of Providence, command
ing the Pacific. And the Pacific is the
ocean of the commerce of the future.
Most future wars will be conflicts for
commerce. The power that rules the
Pacific, therefore, is the power that
rules the world. And, with the Philip
pines, that power is and will forever
be the American republic.
"China's trade is the mightiest com
mercial TACT in II future. Her foreign
me vas $2S5, 73S,30O IN 1897, OF
which we, her neighbot, had less than
Is per cent, Of which only I little more
than half was merchandise sold to
China by us. We O. Mt to have so per
cent and we will. ~ mas foreign
commerce is only be T.ning. Her re-
sources, her possibilities, her wants
all are ~undeveloped. She has only $40
miles of railway; 1 have seen trains
loaded with natives and all the activi-
ties OF modern life already appearing
along the line. But she needs, and in
fifty years will have, 10000 miles of
railway. Who car estimate her com
merCe then? That statesman commits
a crime against American trade
against the American grower of cotton
and wheat and tobacco, the American
manufacturer of machinery and cloth
ing-who fails to put America where
she may command that trade. Ger
many's Chinese trade is increasing like
magic: she has established ship lines
and secured a tangible foothold on Chi
mas very soil. Russia's Chinese trade
is growing beyond belief; she is spend
ing the of the empire to finish
her railroad in Pekin itself. and she is
in physical possession Of the imperial
province of Manchuria. Japan's Chi
nese trade is multiplying in volume
and value; she is bending her energy
TO her merchant marine, and is locating
along China's very coast. But Manila
is nearer China than Yokohama is. The
Philippines command the commercial!
situation of the entire east. Can Ameri-
ca best trade with China from San
Francisco or New York? From San
Francisco. of course. But if San Frax-
cisco were closer to China than New
York is to Pittsburg, what then? And
Manila is nearer Hong Kong han Hs-
yana is TO Washington. And yet
American statesmen plan to surrender
this commercial throne of the Orient
where Providence and our soldiers
lives have placed us. When history
comes to write the story of that sug-
gested treason to American supremacy
and therefore to the spread Of Ameri-
can civilization, let her in mercy write
that those who so proposed were mere
ly blind, and nothing more.
But il they did not command China,
India, the Orient, the whole Pacific for
purposes Of o~ffense, defense and trade.
the Philippines are so valuable in
themselves that we should hold them.
| have cruised more than 1000 miles
through the archipelago, every moment
a surprise at its loneliness and wealth.
have ridden hundreds of miles on the
islands, every foot Of the way a reve-
lation OF vegetable and mineral rich
ness. No land in America surpasses
in fertility the plains and valleys of
Luzon. Rice and coffee, sugar and CO.
coanuts, hemp and tobacco, and many
products tof the temperate as well as
tropic zone grow in various sections Of
the archipelago.
at will be hard for Americans who
nave not studied them TO understand
the people. They are a harbarous race,
modified by three centuries of contact
with a decadent race. The Filipino is