The St. Johns herald., 1901-03-30
AN AGE OF CONQUEST
Rapid Growth of the United States
 Within Its Own Confines.
Henry M. Stanley on the Present and Future of Our Great Nation Progress Toward
 Empire.

OL OuF treat Nation
 Progress Toward
 Empire.
 In referring to the rapid growth ot the United States, within the confines of our own continent, Sir Henry M Stanley, in an article on ''Anglo-SaXoI Responsibilities" says:
 "Ihere is nothing so very strange about it. While still young the nation showed extraordinary expansive pow species. Neither Frenchman nor scalp ing Indian could stay their progress Step by step they pressed on, and were gallantly followed by the vanguard o1 the nation, until, in the course of time they had spread far and wide in multi tudes over the once unpeopled wastes Then he continues:
 ] "To-day the nation numbers over TO- O0O,0O0. True, it is but a slim popUla- ton for so vast region, compared to what we see in crowded Europe. We must not, however, measure the capac- ity of these millions by mere numbers, but in organization, in the power of combining for common purpose and in the prosecution of big enterprises. Treble their number of ordinary Euro peans could not have surpassed them in what they hare done.
 1.-The story of their achievements reads like an epic of the heroic age. It appears as though the bigness of their noun tains, their plains and their rivers and sweet water seas had impressed itself on them. Their wheat fields, their orchards and their parks are on a scale unknown in any other continent. Their railway mileage exceeds that of united Europe, inclusive of Great Brit ain, by 25,0OO miles, and the capital in- volved amounts to the colossal sum of SIP, ,O0O, ,O0C, ,OG0. So that, large as the superficial area of their territory may be, these 7O,OO0,GO0 of brainy people most naturally have begun to find it getting too narrow for their concep- tions, and to think of investing their surplus money and energies in some thing else than railroads. Also in point of numbers, propcrtionate to area, it will be seen upo4i studying the sub ject that they have arrived pretty near ly to what the English had done before they sallied from these islands to found a greater Britain. Then, again, we find that hate of Spanish cruelty has led them to venture abroad, just as Spanish greed, bigotry and the inquisition in- cited our forefathers in the time tf Elizabeth to go cut on the high seas and give battle to Spain. And, prob ably, as in old time, there were minor and less noble motives underlying our hate, so we should discover, if we took pains, that America was animated by similar desires.
 Tt needs no prophet to foretell that our progress toward empire will be imi- tated still further. The British empire consists of new countries that have been peopled by emigrants and com mercial agents from our shores, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; of India, which has been slowly gained by conquest; of islands that fell to us in political wars; of Af- rican territories which were absorbed through the necessity of saving from the general scramble a portion that should be free to commerce. It is un- likely that Americans will acquire col onies by emigration in the manner we did, because there are no uninhabited regions available, or that they can an- Al inhabitants as we annexed Nyassa Land and Uganda, because there are none left, but the acquisition of territory by conquest will always remain open to the powerful and aggressive, and it is to be feared that no peace conference can provide against the contingency.
 ''It is by that method Of conquest that the Americans are destined to still greater dominion. There are nations periodically dying, and they offer strong temptations and, unfortunately, they become more and more impolitic as they become weaker. Fate often pro- vides the opportunities. It braces the strong nation and benumbs the fac ulties of the weak. It inspires that which seeks inspiration and paralyzes the other. It furnishes wisdom and strength to one and breeds confusion and discord in that destined to doom. You have but. to study the worlds map to find that at least four nations seem already marked by fate to provide prey for the strong. America must be num- bered among the strongest, and it is her nature to recognize opportunities and to avail herself of them.-Outlook.