North Park union., 1900-10-05
Imperialism, Ram
pant Or Regnant.

10 the reprach OF imperialism,
supporters Of Mr.. Mckinley very gen.
orally answer that there is nothing of
that kind in the policy and procedure
OF the government In their opinion
Imperialism is q phantom of pessi-
mism raised by certain superannuated
Republicans and adopted by the
Democratic party as a bogie to
frighten patriotic voters from their
allegiance to the President. In this
they follow their chief, who on many
occasions and in his latest utterance
has labored long and earnestly to
prove that he still holds the ship of
state towards the pole star of Liberty,
and has no intention to set the Re-
public in the course of empire. The
President and his supporters may be
in the situation Of man who suffers
from an incurable disease and who
refuses to consider his symptoms be-
cause they are offensive to him. AS
in such case the wise physician will
decline to accept the patients diagno-
sis and will examine him carefully to
ascertain whether there is n germ of
disease in any organ Of his body, so
the American voter will look into the
body polite to see whether there is
practice of Imperialism in the face
of all denial The Spanish war be-
gan in the spring of 1898, was de-
clared to be for the liberation of Gu
ba. In March, 1897, in his inaugural
address, the President referred TO the
subject and said: ave want no wars
of conquest; we must avoid the temp
tatlon of territorial aggression"
The resolution of congress passed
April, goth, 1898, requiring Spain to
withdraw from the island of Cuba is
entitled "For the recognition of the
independence of the island Of Cuba
and the fourth clause reads as fol-
lows: "That the United States hereby
disclaims any disposition or intention
to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction,
or control over said island except for
the paciflcation thereof, and asserts
its determination, when that is ac-
complished, to leave the government
and control of the island to Its peo.
pie"
1t will be remembered that in Euro
pean courts this declaration OF Con-
gress and Of the President was re-
ceived with supercilious distrust. A
war for humanity, as 1t was then called,
was unknown In the history of
the world and the professors Of king
craft, everywhere, were slow to be-
lleve that there could be war by
one nation upon another in the cause
Of free government. 1t is not neces-
sary to consider whether the declara-
ton of Congress was the voice of all
its members or whether it was the
sentiment of majority of the pco-
pie. 1t is fair to accept the rcsolu-
ton as full and complete express
sion of the national purpose in
respect TO the drama snPpen which it
was about to enter; and 1t must be
said that the language used is entire
ly free from ambiguity.
Is there anything obscure or
meaningless in the words of the res
olution, "Thc United States hereby
disclaim any disposition or intention
to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction
or control over said sland?" Ger
tainly not; nothing could be more ex-
plicit. But it is sad that ;he rcsolu-
ton was limited to the island of Cuba
and contains nothing as to the other
islands belonging to Spain which we
might be able to capture. True
enough, because other islands were
not then in question. Congress did
not specify all islands for the reason
that we were not interested in all is
lands of the ocean. We had wit
messed the sufferings of the Cubans
and we were willing to relieve them il
1T should be necessary to fight Spain
in order to give them freedom. Will
any one contend that in war waged
for the freedom of one island in which
we expressly declare we have no sin
lister purpose to take the island to
our own use and gain, we may go up
on q rampage of conquest the world
over and take everything we can lay
our hands on7 This is precisely
what has occurred When Dewey