The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-01-06
Mr. Edward Kerrigan, of Athdrin, was
accidentally drowned in an open gullet
near Ballysmuttin Bridge.
AGAINST IMPERIALISM.
Speech Of Gamaliel Bradford in New
York CITY.

In recent speech before an audi
ence OF anti-inperialists at the PEOPLES
Institute, New York, .Gamaliel Brad
ford took for the text OF his discourse
sentence from the Boston speech OF
Senator Lodge, as follows:
Let us begin by dismissing all the
Idle Jargon and cant about imperialism,
a perfectly meaningless word, iull of
sound and fury, signiiying nothing"
MIR. Bradford undertook to reiute tn.
senator's assertion and to tell what, in
the opinion OF the so-called anti-i1nper-
ialists, the word imperialism means 10
this country to-day. In the beginning
he praised the colonizing methods of
Great Britain in the south seas and con-
trasted them with the warlikc methods
OF the Dutch in Sunatra. This coun-
try, he said, is proceeding upon the
Dutch rather than upon the British
method, and he believed that we would
have to change the plan, or, like the
Dutch, find ourselves conducting very
expensive and practically endless war.
Then he contrasted the motives that led
to British and American colonization
in. the former case the overcrowding of
the home country in the latter a desire
to gain new trade. OF Great Britain he
said:
Her sons are driven to seek homes
elsewhere, and it is only after they have
formed settlements that the mother
country follows after to organize gov
ernments over them"
Concerning the peril of permitting a
foreign war to divert the energy OF the
American people from what he deemed
grave dangers that threaten them at
home MIR. Bradford said in part:
1--WE started hundred years ago a
government OF which the leading feat
tires were almost wholly new and with
structure perhaps the most complex
and artificial i'll history. For century
this scheme OF government has gone on
without material repairs or alterations,
while the population has swelled from
100000 10 100000, the states from
thirteen to fortyfve and territory from
a strip of seaboard to the breadth of a
continent. Can anybody deny that the
machinery shows signs OF breaking un-
der the strain? Look at the great city
Of New York, practically under the cor
rupt rule OF one man; at that legisla-
ture at Albany, almost equally in the
Hands Of another, though OF different
party. Multiply these conditions by
forty-hve. Then look at that congress,
the outcome Of, system of caucus rule
in which the people have very little
share, and dominated by private inter
ests. Look at the president, who leaves
congress dispersed for nine months
while he. carries on war on the other
side OF the globe, and when that body
does come together leaves it hardly any
alternative but to allow him free hand
in the same direction.
DO these things show that the prin
ciples OF our government are unsound?
Not at all. They do show that our in
ternal affairs require the undivided at
tention OF generations to come, if these
institutions, with which the fate of hu-
lnanity is bound UP, are not to 90 to
shipwreck.
"If,' he continued, eve cannot gov
ern successfully states and cities at
home, how can We carry on govern
ments in Asia? No doubt, if we choose
to spend men and money enough we
can conquer the Filipinos. We may
even hold Our own in conflict with
Russia for the partition OF China. But
there are some things we cannot do.
| We are not strong enough to beat
down with one hand people fighting
for liberty and with the other hold UP
the Declaration OF Independence and
the Constitution; We are not strong
enough to fly Our flag over the palace
of Mohammedan sultan, paying him
salary for maintaining slavery and
concubinage, and yet make the world
believe that that flag is still an emblem
of human freedom and civilization; we
are not strong enough to establish &
military empire in the East and main.
tain the republic of Washington an!
Lincoln at home"
In reputation OF the argument tina
the American people will profit by re-
tanning the Philippine Islands the
speaker said:
1--WE are told that the Philippine wal
is. in the interest of commerce Thu
simplest figures will show that the ex
pense in one year of war could not BIZ
repaid by the profits OF twenty years o
commerce; and il. there are any profit:
they will be reaped by rich syndicate:
and mercantile houses, while the massc:
OF the people, as always, will bear the
weight OF the war taxes, both in blood
and money. The, open door will bt
one for the admission OF nyriads o
orientals to swamp and destroy oul
labor markets."
Mr.. Bradford cited long chain OF re-
cent events and political tendencies
which, in his opinion, indicated wild.
ening departure from the republican