Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-10-28
MIR. J. S. WILLIAMS FOR M'K1NLEYt

President John Shelton Williams,
of the Seaboard Air Line Rail-
way. in lengthy letter to
the editor OF the Manufacturers
sRecord. declares his purpose to vote for
AIR. Mckinley and sets forth the rea-
sons which influence him. After as
sorting MIR. Bryans attitude on the
money question to be the paramount
issue. Mr.. Williams thus disposes of
imperialism:
II have not. however. the least idea
that MIR. Mckinley wishes to make
himself emperor or to destroy our liber
ties. If he had any purpose of that
kind he would. it appears to me. have
begun on the South. where the necessi-
ties of our condition have given him
preteXts. As Il matter oc fact he has
left us free hand to work out our
own particular problems in our own
way, and he has impressed me as a
broad minded, conservative ana patri-
otic citizen of unusually pure personal
character, whose mistakes have re-
suited from his anxiety to obey what
he believed to be the will of the peo-
pie"
Mr. Williams makes the common mis-
take of superficial observers by assum-
ing that Imperialism is merely mat
ter of administration, whereas 1t is. in
fact. a question both of administration
and of policy. The question at issue is
not at all whether Mr.. Mckinley shall
become Emperor, but whether the
United States, in defiance OF all tradi-
ton and contrary to the genius of
American institutions. shall be COM
mitted irrcvocably to coonialsm, with
the attendant evils OF a large standing
army. growing burden of pensions
an increasing military, naval and civil
budget and the inevitable concentra-
ton of power in the hands of the Fed
eral Executive.
This is the issue and it cannot be
evaded by frivolous references to Mr.
Mckinley as Emperor. The plain fact
is that lie is now exercising powers
that he does not claim to derive from
the Constitution. that no other Presi-
dent has exercised and that are in their
nature purely autocratic. But it is not
only or mainly Il question OF what Mr.
Mckinley will or will not do, in the
administration of the government of
the States and the colonies. The real
question is whether lie shall be per-
mitted TO embark on n course that will
bind the hands of his successors. lay
ing on them obligations that neither
they nor the nation can escape, and
giving to them opportunities for the
subversion of the government that
weak man Will not be able to resist and
that an ambitious man will not at
tempt 10 resist.
We can draw back from colonialism
now: we can not draw back from 1t
four years hence. Whether he will or
make of Mr. Mckinley an Emperor. so
far as they are concerned. A colonial
policy will invest his successors with
imperial power in the colonies and they
can no more escape it's exercise than
they can escape the performance of
any other duty that goes with the
Presidential Office. When that Office
has been vested with imperial power
over the colonies it will not be very
long step TO the exercise OF such power
over the States. Even Mr.. Mckinley,
timid as he is, may, before second
term expires. deprive Mr.. Williams of
the humble gratitude he expresses. by
using one of the "preteXts" the South
gives him for playing the Emperor in
these parts. Indeed the threat is open
~ made that If the Republicans elect
Mir. Mckinley and a majority of the
lower house they will pass a Federal
election law for the express purpose OF
beginning on the South"