The Republican journal., 1900-03-08
The United States a World Power.

1t has been the cry for some time that
the newspapers were encroaching upon
the domain of the magazines. That may
be so, but the March number of the At
lantic Monthly contains an article of such
ability and such immediate interest that
it has been copied, more or less fully,
into the newspapers with the ''scare
heads that herald alike the trivial or the
important, the affairs of the ''seamy-
sde'' or of the four hundred. The arti,.
Gle in question. "Growth of our Foreign
Policy" is by Richard Olney, President
Clevelands Attorney General, 1898 I,
and it is certainly the ablest paper that
has yet appeared in print upon the most
vital question of the day. Mr.. Olney is
Democrat, but he writes as an American,
and statesman. He says:
Though historians will probably assign
the abandonment of the isolation policy
of the United States to the time when
this country and Spain went to war over
Cuba, and though the abandonment may
have been prec;pitated by that contest,
the change was inevitable, had been long
preparing, and could not have been long
delayed. The American people were fast
opening their eyes to the fact that they
were one of the foremost Powers of the
earth and should play commensurately
great part in its affairs.
No summary can do justice to Mr.. o.
neys article, and we shall not attempt
one; but the paragraph above quoted may
be taken as the key note. He holds that
Congress should make Cuba in point of
law what she already is in point of fact,
namely, United States territory. Unless
this is done, he says, ''capital will hes tate
to go there, emigration from this country
will be insignificant, and Cuba will fail
to enter upon that new era of progress
and development, industrial, political
and social, which is relied upon to justify
and ought to Justify the substitution of
American for Spanish control"
Mr. Oney carefully considers the Phil
| ippine problem and finds nothing to com
mend the acquisition of these islands.
| cit would have been wise for u.s. he
| says, "to acquire such part of the Philip
| pines as was ecessary to give us proper
coaling stations and an adequate naval
base. If that and that only had been
done, we should have been in better DO
sition to secure and protect our interests
in trade with China than we are with tn e
Philippine load on our back But hav-
ing acquired the Philippines, Mr.. Olney
does not propose to abandon them to
their fate. He is too good an American
for t hat II says: ''We are committed
the Philippines are ours-how we shall
deal with them is domestic question
simply-sn that, in this connection and
at this time, what remains to be consid-
cred is The effect of this exact situation
upcn the future of our foreign relations.
Tire United States now asserting itself not
only as one of the great Powers of the
,sorld but as a Power with very large
Asiatic dependencies-what consequent
changes in respect of it's foreign relations
must reasonably be anticipated"
But for Great Britain's countenance
Mr.. Olney thinks we should almost GER
tainly never have got the Philippines; and
that our hold on them would be likely to
prove precarious, perhaps altogether un-
stable, without her continued support
An alliance with Great Britain is the log
ical result of the situation. OF this Mr..
Olney says: I'VE join ourselves to that
one of the great Powers most formidable
as a foe and most effective as friend;
whose people, make with our own but
one family, whose internal differences
should not prevent a united front as
against the world outside; whose infu-
ence upon the material and spiritual con-
ditions of the human race has upon the
whole been elevating and benificent; and
whose example and experience can not
help being of the utmost service in our
dealing with the difficult problems before
u.s.