Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-07-14
Our Imperator in China.

New York World.
Public attention will be riveted upon
this following part of Mr.. McKinleys let
ter to his brother sovereigns through the
Secretary of State, Mr.. Hay:
The purpose of the president is
to act currently with the other powers
fourthly, in aiding to prevent a
spread of the disorder to other provinces
and recurrence of such disasters.
The purpose" not of the Congress- not
of the people, if you please, but of the
President! THE President and the
other powers" Certainly no fault is to
be found with this document, written by
Mr.. Hay and revised by the President at
Canton, Ohio, on the score of lack of
frankness. That great imperial high
mightiness of the President will cooper
ate with 1.-THE other powerI' not merely
in protecting American life and property,
not merely in doing what the American
people, hitherto supposed to bear the re-
lation to the President of sovereign to
servant, may have authorized, but in
using American soldiers and sailors in
aiding to prevent a recurrence of such
disasters" That is, Mr.. Mckinley will
use the armies and navies of the United
States arbitrarily and without authority
in paolfying China
AS contrasted with these imperialstic,
land-grabbing projects, without author
ity OF law, without sanction in the tradi-
tons and beliefs of this Democratic peo-
pie, what is our duty in China, what is
our attitude toward it's troubles and its
destiny?
The Chinpcp-hOrya1yar hoy
ever barbarously from our point Of view
are fighting for their national life; and
self-preservation is the first law of ma
tons as of nature in individuals. In re-
sisting the encroachments of European
powers, avowedly intent upon the break
up of China" their attitude is the same
as that of the Filipinos in resisting SUBJ
jugation and of the Boer republics in
fighting for their freedom and independ-
ence.
What respect can we expect to com
mand for the Monroe doctrine of non-in-
reference by European powers in the
affairs of this hemisphere If we are to
join in wars of conquest and concert of
action" to secure spheres of influence
in Asia? Could there be a more compli-
Gated and dangerous foreign "entangle-
ment' than is that into which President
Mckinley is leading us in the East? If
this step is made both inevitable and cas-
Ter by the Presidents Asatic adventure
In the Philippines, it is only further proof
of the combined folly and fatality of his
war of criminal aggression
If we had followed the policy of true
Americansm IN the Philippines we should
never have Numbered into this Chinese
complication. True Americanism requir-
ed that we should stand aloof from Euro
pean land robberies. Then China might
have regarded the United States as her
friend and arbitrator. By joining our in
terests and forces with the European
monarchial military invaders We are
identified In the Chinese mind with the
other foreign devils" Hence our minis
ter-who might have been as safe and
as helpful in Pekin as Minister Washburn
was in Paris during the dreadful and
bloody days of the Communists besieged
and menaced with the rest.
This is deplorable, but the responsible
ity runs straight back 10 the question,
What business have we in China? We do
not want any part of her territory, and
true religion and true Americanism are
agreed in forbidding either propagandism
or trade extension a the lannon's mouth.