The age-herald., 1900-10-07

United States a World Power
 "The next argument put forth to recon-
 cile the people of the United States to
 colonial policy and to induce them 10 tram
 pie under foot their own Constitution, was that it would make the United States
 world power. We admit that the Republi-
 cans have made us world power II II
 makes us a world power to-
 Strut through the world and bluster and bras,
 With dollar mark stamped on the brave old flag"
 If to say one thing and do another if to start out with freeing the Cubans and to wind up with enslaving the Filipinos, II
 after proclaiming to the world what our i plain duty was to Porto Rico, to do absolutely the opposite; if these things ] constituted our being world power, It i must be conceded that we have become a | world power.
 | But has the status of this nation been 1 improved? Does this country occupy | more enviable position in the estimation of l the world since the Mckinley admnistra- | ton? I think not. Before that it was re- | garded as a nation of people who dared to | do what was right and spurned to do what was wrong. Are we so regarded in the eyes of the world today? Not world power until the Napoleon of the United States made us so. Did we not whip great England before we were born, before the
 immortal Constitution was penned, and then whip her again when we were but an infant
 AnUnwise Change Separated by two great oceans from "the exterminating havoc" of other parts of the globe, we were so situated that,
 while me might not conquer the world, we could not be conquered by the world, which made us world power in the eyes of some of those who only look to ability to resist force.
 But this afforded no excuse for those who want a big standing army. There fore, our boundary line was extended 1000 miles out into the far Pacific ocean, in the very midst of the armed camps of Europe
 with their eleven millions of soldiers and
 their fifteen hundred ships of war
 What is the danger of this situation? It Is this: That nation hitherto uncon- ouerable, can be humiliated and it's pres | tige lost the result of one battle out in | the Orient. In case of dispute with any | foreign nation, our socalled new posses ] sions, 1000 miles from home, would be our vulnerable point, as they were Spain's. How much better it would be to have 1 secured to us all the benefits that would accrue from a treaty of rights with friendly nation, as the Filipinos would be in the event of MT. Bryans election, than | to own the islands with hos .ile popula- ton, requiring a large standing army to keep in subjection and which would be our
 
 great powers of Europe
 You can weigh every reason advanced | for the annexation of the Philippine | Islands whether to be governed as colony or to be governed as state, and they are insufficient to induce any reasonable man l to abandon the policies under which this
 nation has grown to its present greatness, | to follow in 'Europe's barbaric parade Democrats Expansionists bo. thot Doy 1 opposed to expansion. It is not true. All
 the territory hitherto acquired, except Alaska and Hawaii were acquired under | Democratic administration and for pur- l poses entirely different from those behind | the purchase of the Philippine Islands. "The United States originally consisted | of only thirteen states. Then Florida, in- | cluding the southern portion of Georgia, | Mississippi, Louisiana and all west of the | Mississippi river belonged to foreign na- | tions. All this territory was acquired by 1 the United States under Democratic admin l istra ton. In the treaties of annexation, 1t 1 was provided that the inhabitants thereof 1 should be incorporated into citizenship or l the Union. The territory was acquired for l the purposes of statehood for homes for our people,
 Furthermore the reasons that animated l Jefferson and his successors in acquiring this territory to remove the necessity | for large standing army that would have l been required to defend our boundary line; l whereas, the purpose, as have shown, | of acquiring the Philippine Islands, is to
 create a necessity for large standing l amy.
 The Legal Questions Involved | MT. Mckinley, in his letter of accept l ance, having been driven from their other l position, in desperation seeks to shelter l himself behind legal technicalities. He | says it was his duty to defend the title | to the Philippine Islands that the United | States acquired, and yet he attempted 10
 take military possession Of the Pnilppines l before the exchange of notifications of the | treaty. Several months before tAat time 1 Mir Moniney ordered the commanding | general to take military possession of the 1 whole of the islands. Was he defending l any title then?
 l the general sense and usage of mankind, l that the transfer of real property should l not be valid, unless the graRt0y heth the l capacity, as well as the intention, to de- | liver possession. Sir William Blackstone | says that 1t prevails in the codes of all 1 civilized nations;' for possession Is an es- sential part of title and dominion over 1 property >Kents Commentaries, Vol. ", . ed, Page 49O)
 1 Tt is therefore evident that Spain, not | having possession, no title passed to the | United States. The only effect of the treaty | was to extinguish any claim of title tn Spain. But If we acquired any title, 1t
 could only be under the circumstances, in 1 trust for the F'ilipinos themselves.
 "But, as John G. Carlisle says, the 1 question of the greatest importance to the l United States is whether they shall allow
 war, prosecuted ostensiby for the inde-
 pendence of a foreign people to be made | the pretext or the occasion for changing | the very essence of our national characterj ! and for converting their own government
 into a great war-making. tax-consuming.
 land-g grabbing and office distributing ma 1 chine No graver question than this will l probably ever be presented for the consid- | eration of the American people, for upon l its decision depends the preservation or de- l struction of the vital principle of a federa- l tive republic.
 l Mckinley and the Negro Question 1 MT Mckinley, instead of answering the l accusations that his administration has | set at naught the plain and express pro-