Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1900-09-22
The Leading Bryan Organ Was
HOWling for Expansion and
an Imperial Navy Two
Years Ago.
AN EXPANSION EDITORIAL
The Journal of November, 1898,
Loud in Its Demands for a
Great Navy and Perma-
nent Possession of the
Philippines.

The utter insincerity of the Demo
cratic press ON the issue of imperialism
Is manifested in a thousand ways, but
nowhere is it more marked than in the
course of the syndicate of papers owned
by w. r. Hearst, the millionaire
owner of the New York Journal,
San Francisco Examiner and Chicago
American.
These three papers are the bone and
sinew and substance of the Democratic
campaign, furnishing the only avenue
through which the campaign managers
reach the class of readers among
which the Police Gazette and kindred
publications find circulation. If there
is a scandalous campaign lie to be put
IN currency about Republican candi-
dates, an immoral story to be told
about the administration or piece of
false testimony to be given concerning
q Republican official, it is to be found
in the Journal, the Examiner or the
American. They are sensational papers
of the "yellowest" type, and, though
totally discredited by the intelligent
and well informed reading public. have
wide circulation among a certain
class To this class the denogcgic APP
peal is made that the policy of the
present administration is toward i'm
perialism," whatever that may be, and
the reader is frantically appealed to
and pleaded with to vote against a
party that forces government upon an
Unwilling people in the Philippines and
which is accomplishing expansion be-
yond the seas.
It so happens that the files of the
Journal, the parent of all this yellow
brood, are still in existence, and those
who have read the Journals latest at
tacks on the administration expan-
sion policy are invited to peruse and
consider an editorial in the Journal
printed Nov. Is, 1885, and signed by w.
r. Hearst in person. The article in
question was run clear across the edi-
torial page of the paper, and was adj
vertised throughout the land as the
Journals policy" The article was as
follows:
We have demanded from the first
the annexation of Hawaii; we de-
the war; we demanded the
acquisition of territory in the West
Indies and the retention of ALL the
of our new territories
as intcrgral parts of this country,
to the American idea,
without any programme of mill
tarism or imperialism foreign to
the fundamental principles of our
republic. We demand the cOnstruc-
ton of the Nicaragua canal, not only
for reasons of military strategy, but
In order that the most widely sep
arnted sections of our domain may
have free and direct cOmmunica-
Hon with each other. We demand
the erection of great national uni
versities Mt West Point and Annap-
Dlis. where all students educated at
the expense of the government shall
receive such military training as
Will make them efficient officers in
time of war, to the end that this
nation may be placed upon proper
military footing without the neces-@
,ity of that undemocratic institu-
ion, large standing army. We
lemand the building of the finest
navy in the world and the total sep
aratfon of the army and navy from
politics.
What the Journal then demanded"
vas what it foresaw would be the in
vitable result of the war with SPAIN
nd, within certain bounds, what all
Intelligent people then conceded would
re adopted as the administrative policy. |
t was what the nation wanted, and !
he Journal cunningly hypothetical the
uture and played to the galleries by
what it foresaw would be
accomplished in order that when it
vas done the paper might point to the !
esult and claim the credit for it. The
,nnexation of Hawaii had already been |
accomplished when the demand was |
made, and the acquisition of territory !
n the West Indies was then well /
Inder way; '.the government of our
lew territory as integral parts of this
ountry'' was then admitted to be
mong the plans of the administration, /
nd ethe construction of an Isthmian
anal had already been indorsed; the
of an imperial navy which
yas the Journals loudest and most
existent demand, was met only in
art, and it's demands as to the army
7ere in large measure forestalled by
uccessful volunteer army that carried T
II before 1t in Cuba and the Phillip
ines.
It would be supposed that paper
7hich had made such demands at
time and which had declared for ex-
ansion on scale that would have
airly dazed the most ultra Republican
f that time, would be somewhat con-
istent and stand by what it had ad-
ertised, but the Journal, like its mas
ers, has Topped to anti expansion, and
as Joined Bryan in opposition to ma
lonal growth and the widening of our
commercial field.
Whoever reads the Journal OF to-day
nd considers it's attitude on the great
uestions should consider also its atti-
ude of less than two years ago, when
nese questions were really alive and
Then they had to be acted upon
specially when they have been de-
ided in the very way which the Jour-
al then demanded they should be. it is
confession of rank inconsistency and
ypocritical partisanship for the Jour
al to condemn the work it had for
lerly commended ar 90 Sc itself
etween two preside apafgns.
here has been no change lii the Re-
ublican policy and no change in the
Of theJ Journal. The Change"
supplied by the national Democratic
which furnishes the induce
tent to Mr.. Hearst to eat his words
nd confess himself the partisan which
e pilloried In 1898.