The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-11-27
The ARMY.

have evidently given only little
thought to what would have happened
in the same direction had Bryan beer
elected in place of Mckinley. Instead
Of an army of 100, 900 men, the nation
would have found itself forced to
maintain one of even greater size, and
what is more, the major portion of
necessity would have been stationed
in the Philippines. His extension of
the Monroe doctrine to the islands
would have made it imperative to
keep a large force there at all times.
Without an army there to back up his
notice Of non-interference by any
European power it would have re-
ceived slight attention from those to
whom it was directed. An army
would also have been needed to main
tain peace and order in the archi-
pelago, for the dissentions and strife
that would have arisen among the ma
tives had they been left to their own
device would have found constant ex-
preston in revolts and plots against
the men at the head of whatever gov
eminent might have been set up.
Even if for no other purpose, he would
have been obliged to keep a force in
the. islands to make good the protect
crate he intended to maintain over
them. Aside from a land force an
ever present naval force would also
have been necessary.
The people having by their votes
expressed their determination to hold
the islands, at whatever cost, and also
endorsed the administrations purpose
to suppress rebellion and compel rec
ognition of proper authority, the OBJ
structionists should cease their efforts
to hamper the government and enable
it to carry out the wishes Of the ma
tion as voiced at the recent election.
Conditions and emergencies have
arisen in the last few years which
have forced this nation to take a stand
it v took before and which raised
it from the level of a secondary power,
so far as its bearings IN the worlds
affairs is concerned, to one of the COM
manding nations of the earth. The
time has passed when a policy Of isola-
ton was justifiable. The development
of it's has reached a stage
when it finds itself forcd to look for
markets for it's products elsewhere
than in the narrow field with which
it was formerly content. By this is
not meant that as a nation we intend
to enforcs trade at the mouth of the
canon or solicit buyers for u wares
through the persuasive medium of a
breech loading rifle. AS in the past,
the nation will in the future stand
for peaceful conquest and depend upon
the superior quality and low prices of
what it has to sell to secure customers.
But needs protection and
the nation that expects to be success
full in the marts of the world must at
all times be prepared to throw it's
sheltering arms about those who ex-
plot it's trade and extend it's traffic to
the fartheromst corners of the earth.
What else but the splendid showing
this nation made in the war with
Spain gave it that prestage and infu-
ence which enabled it to secure SO
ready adherence to the open door pol
icy it advocated in the orient. Only
knowledge of it's practically limitless
in the case of war caused the
powers of the old world to consent to
permit the youngest nation on earth
to enter into equal competition in a
market which they had come to con-
slider as their own, and especially that
portion of the market which lays
within the respective spheres of in
huence' that some of those nations
have erected for themselves there in
recent years. 1t may be argued that
the concessions were made because Of
the friendly feeling entertained for us
by the European nations, but this does
not weaken the old aphorism that
power begets respect and friendship.
It is not necessary that we should be-
come a nation of soldiers if we desire
to achieve our ambitious aim of be-
coming the dominant power in the
commerce of the world, but it is nec-
essary that we should be ready at all