Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-11-21
EXPANSION DID II.
Here Is an Earnest, Eloquent Analysis Of the
Republican Victory.

lots.
l think that the ghost of free sill
YER struck less terror to the soul of
suffrage than the living issue of Civ
ing up what our arms and blood
have won in the Pacific seas.
l believe that Tuesdays ballot was
an expansion victory, and the re-
suit solidifies my conviction that tho
sentiment of this country is over
whelmingly for expansion.
Silver in this campaign was a
shadowy ghost that revisited the po-
litical battlefield only during the
pale glimpses of the moon. 1t had
no terrors and it scared no votes.
The vital, breathing, present is
sue-the paramount issue if you
will-was the commerce of China
and the Pacific ocean, and the trade
winds blew the ballots in storm to-
wards the party that stood for these
colossal facts.
This is commercial age-more's
the pity. The dominant thought of
the world il trade and accumulation.
Moral ideas make scant headway
against vast and commercial inter
ests. And when the moral ideas are
challenged by the missionary fervor
of both liberty and religion, and the
commercial interests are patent and
towering, the result of the poll bat
tic ought never to have been in
doubt. 1t is easy to see this now as
it is all over. 1t should have been
clear before.
do not think that the Republi-
can majority, great as it is, fully
illustrates the strength of the cx-
pansion sentiment.
Thousands of expansioniste- and
/ am one of thcm-followed the
flag Of Democracy for the issues
that it carried which seemed greater
and deeper than any commercial
consideration.
The normal Democratic majority
in Georgia is about $4,000. The re-
turns this morning indicate about
10000 majority. The $4,000 silent
voters in my judgment, are ex-
pansionists. And behind these are
some $4,000 other votes that would
follow the flag to the East, if they
could 90 without treason to Democ-
racy.
| believe that the thinking South
is for expansion. There is every
material reason why it should be.
No section of the Republic has so
great commercial stake in the
trade of the East. We have been
war-wastcd and poor. While the East
ern and Middle States have rioted
for half a century in prosperity, we
have travelled in the struggle for re-
cuperation from poverty and desoa-
tion.
TO our staple and material pro-
ducts the open markets of China and
the Pacific islands make the indus
trial light in the East. They shine
with golden promise to our farms
and factories and mines.
More than this. The establish
mcnt of our national power and in
fuence in these Pacific seas is the
only possible guarantee which the
future holds for the completion of
the Nicaraguan canal. That great
enterprise has been for 90 years the
plaything of lobbyists in the Houses
OF Congress. The American flag in
the Philippines makes its completion
imperative and sure.
And when that impe ial waterway
links the two imperial oceans of the
world, these Gulf and Southeastern
States become the geographical CEN
ter of the worlds commerce-with
all the measureless impetus which
that tremendous fact will give to her
seaport cities and to her inland trade.
What people, then, have 80 vast
an interest in the alag in the East"
as we have, and if materialism be the
god of this age, is it any wonder that
votaries should follow in thousands
whore his mcrcenary banner leads ?
Mark you, I do not say that the
South is III favor of imperialism az
Mr.. Bryan defines it. There is no
endorsement here of colonies Of
slaves and of pro. consuls enriched
with spoils. All the instinct and
traditions Of Cowpcns and Kings
Mountain would rebel at that.
But there was somehow the per-
vading hope that the Mckinley
policy, in its fuller evolution, would
conserve all these Republican ideals,
and on the other hand, the pervad-
ing apprehension that Bryan in his
strenuous zeal for liberty, might
loose the substance while he bound
the shadow.
Since, then, tho policy which
wraps our highest interests has won
without cooperation or consent
it is high time that the business South
should speak its mind to those who
represent it in the national legisla-
ture. We are free now from the
immediate fcalty to party which
bound our tongues. Our political
cause has been stakcd and lost. We
arc at liberty to find ourselves among
new conditions The way of our
material welfare is plain. Let us
summon our public servants to help
us "work the road" Let us make
haste to snake friends to ourselves
of the mammon OF unrighteousncss,
that when we die they may receive
us into everlasting habitation."
For Bryan and his great battle
there is increasing love and admira-
tion. No cause in the republic has
had an ablcr or a noblcr leader than
the cause and the man Just fallen
hv tho hallnt Timn will uindinnto a