The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-07-03
ITS MEANING

few years. Inc nfSt ana greatest me
mOry, the fact which marks out the
date as the great day of the year is the
establishment of American lndepen-
dence, the formation of that mighty
Republic, which today astonishes the
world and whose greatness far exceeds
the widest dreams of it's founders.
Then it is the day of the battle of San
1iago which established without ques-
ton the immense superiority of our
navy, and which humbled the once
naughty Spaniard and drove him from
the new world back to the old. In the
Pacific it is the day when the Repub-
lie was officially declared upon these
islands that forerunner of the annex
alton that was to come. and this very
day. this present Fourth of July 1901 is
and will be a marked day in the his
tory of the Philippines, for it has been
designated as the one when the military
government of all peaceful provinces
shall cease, and when the civil govern
rnent under Judge Taft shall take its
place.
Take then the growth of the Republic.
of the United States have spread from
comparatively narrow belt fringing
the Atlantic seaboard till they swept
over the Mississippi, crossed the plains,
assembled the Rockies, climbed the
Sierra Nevada and occupied the whole
Pacific Coast from the Canadian border
to the confines of Mexico. They have
not stopped there. The power of the
United States has launched out into the
Pacific. Hawaii has come to her by
peaceful annexation, and has given her
the commanding position in this ocean.
And farther still has the flag travelled.
Guam is hers, a most valuable coaling
station. The teeming millions of the
Philippines, the prize of war, are hers,
and her statesmen are using their most
earnest endeavors to give to those peo
pie the light of free and untrammelled
civilization and gradually the benefit of
political liberty. Moreover the occupa-
ton of the Philippines gives the United
States a powerful lever in the discus
sion o. policies in the Far East, while
her command of coaling stations makes
her practically the arbiter of the for
tunes of the North Pacific and It's trade.
The presence of the lars and Stripes
floating over Tutuila shows also that
the United States proposes to have a
say in the policy of the South Pacific
when the proper time comes.
Look too at the increase of popula-
ton. From three millions at the COM
mencement of the Republic there are
now over 70OOO,OO0 inhabitants, and
statisticians tell us that there will be
200,000,000 in the year 2000 Look at our
trade, it is the factor which every
European nation has to reckon with.
Look at our manufactures, they are
taking and, in many branches, have
taken the lead of the world. Our
wealth is enormous. The American
financier is, not only a factor but
commanding figure in the financial
world Countries to which we former
ly went for capital, come to us for ours.
No great loan is floated without the
United States having share. The
operations of our syndicates have
struck the world with wonder. And all
this in century and a quarter.
What other nation has had such
phenomenal success. There have been
world empires with populations as
large as that we now count, but they
have not been a united whole, and
when trouble came they fell to pieces
We have a population which must
stick together We have framed a ma
tionality and not. an empire. When
another hundred years has passed by,
Porto Ricans, Filipinos, Hawaiians will
be as much and as thoroughly Ameri-
cans as the. citizens of Maine or of
California are today What Spain
undertook to do for over four hundred
years and failed will probably be ac-
complished in less than half century
by our eountrymen.
Then again the marvel of all this
progress, this immense advancement
is, after all, that it is but embryonic.
The United, States has not reached its
full development. 1t is only beginning
to develop. The twenty-first century
man will look back upon us of the
dawning twentieth in the same light
as we look back upon the men of 1901.
The possibilities of the United States
are practically illimitable. 1t is veri-
tably the favored heir of the ages"
The culture, the scientific, mechanical
political wisdom of many thousand
year old world have been poured into
her lap, and she has moulded them
and fashioned them into something
greater and grander and more useful
than ever before
To turn from so mighty subject as
this to ourselves seems to be coming
to a very small subject indeed, but we
are an integral portion of the United
States now, we share in its glories and
we will share in its sorrows. For how
ever brilliant the future career of the
United states tnust be, there will be
clouds that viii shadow the genial
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