The Saint Paul globe., 1900-01-06
MIR. LAWYERS RESPONSE.
He Argues That They Are All Ex-
pansionists Now.

panS1On1SrS NOW.
Mr.. Lawler said:
Mr.. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: If
your committee had divided the toast to
would be comparatively easy. 1t is easy
to point out how things ought to be,
difficult to see things as they are. In
eoed cty can be foun
gifted beings of unrecogniZed talent and
dormant activities, whose inventive gen
ius could not only have created better
world than this. but can also remedy the
imperfections of the world which has ac-
tually been created. If our census takers
were given the task of adding to their
of citizens who can solve the financial
problem and put an end to the Philip
pine rebellion the result would be inter-
esting and mortifying reading to the Sec
commanding the American army. The
criticism which points out how
things ought to be and bewail the things
that are is as common as that gift of
prophecy which always enables a political
manager to forecast the triumph at the
next election of the principles which he
speaker has neither invention nor proph-
ecy and begs simply for the privilege of
looking for a few minutes at some of
the things that are and perhaps of ex-
pressing the idea that some of those
things are as they ought to be.
The consideration of public questions
is at all times interesting. and. take it.
pertinent to an occasion such as this
when that consideration does not en-
brace partisan issues. In the history of
another government. republican in form
moments Of great public uanger to see to
it that no harm should come upon the
state. The decree of republican Rome
is in perpetual force in republican
America and the entire body of our cit
izenship at all places and in all seasons
regardless of edict of consul or of senate
exercises the high privilege of discussing
those matters that touch the national
prosperity and the national honor.
NEW PROBLEMS APPEAR.
New and important problems are to be
solved by this generation. We live in an
age in which the responsibility of man to
man Is greater than 1t ever was before.
The races and the countries are closer to
one another than they ever were before
Electricity, steam and commerce have
wiped out distance and softened differ
stranger Is no longer the barbarian and
the enemy. Men are concerned more
deeply about the opinion of their fellow
men, and nations even In matters of in
with the power of outside public opinion.
The Pathf1nders and the Daniel Boores
moving continually beyond sight of the
smoke of their neighbor's clearing and
escaping social obligations by escaping
society are figures of the past Even
China and Japan, the cloistered nations of
the world, have recanted their vows Of
solitude and commence to take their place
in the onward march of civilization 1t is
unnecessary to suggest to this gathering
the increased area of our national respon-
slDlllty. Within the past two years our
country has emerged from the compara-
tive isolation of the past to conspicuous
place and mighty influence in the family
of nations. 1t is unnecessary to review
the causes, physical and political, which
up to this time have confined our sphere
of duty to our sphere of territory 1t
would be profitless to speculate whether
the old way or the new way is the bet
ter We must look at the situation as it
is and not as We think it ought to be. In
the words of great statesman and true
hearted patriot, 1T is "a condition and not
a theory which ,confronts u.s." No one by
thought can add cubit to his stature
and no warning of conservatism can
cramp the limits and conf1ne the activities
dred years ago. In despite of laws which
| might we'll have been framed in the royal
halls of Pekin, American genius and
American products have already invaded
BILE laws Of trade. and commerce have
laughed to scorn the printed statutes of
little men, and we have taken place in the
mercial expansion is an accomplished fact
and no voice is raised against it. We
want to trade wherever we can make a
qoar %aK to ana make WHITE to GO Long
goes. the flag must go also because 1t is
the highest and holiest duty of this re-
public to guarantee to its humblest and
poorest citizen safety of property, liberty
and life, whether that citizen stands on
American soil or sails on foreign sea or
sells his wares In the market of foreign
land. This is the obligation that the ma
tion is to keep in your day and mine and
in the days of those who come after us
The faithful discharge of that obligation
cannot be shirked.
WHAT EXPANSION is.
We cannot take the profit without pay
ing the cost. Even If we wished to do so
there is no power which can narrow our
commercial sphere to cur territorial lin
it's. THAT which is called expansion is
simply the irresistible law of human
progress In obedience to which the peo-
pie of this land, after conquering savage
and savagery and solving domestic prob
lens. are advancing to greater victories
on broader fields of human endeayor
Continued ON Third Page.