The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-27
Time Near at Hand, He Says,
When Stars and Stripes
Will Rule Pacific
CENTRAL POWER GROWS
Secretary Points Out How Gov
ernment Rule Is Gradually
Being Concentrated.

PITTSBURG, Pa, April 26.-The six
teenth annual dinner of the Americus Re
publican club of this city, in commemora-
ton of the birthday Of Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant, was held at the Hotel Henry to-
night, and because of the many bright
oratorical stars present was one of the
most brilliant CT the many banquets given
by this well known organization. The Hon.
P. c. Knox, attorney general of the Unit
ed States, officiated as postmaster, and
seated about him were the Hen. L. NJ.
Shaw, secretary of the treasury; the Hon.
II. c. Payne, postmast& general; Con-
greSSman Charles Z. Littlefield of Maine;
the Hon. John P. Elkin, attorney general
Of Pennsylvania; John l. Shaw, president
of the club, and Robert Pitcairn, assistant
to the president of the Pennsylvania rail
road.
Among the guests were many Of Pitts
burg's foremost business men. Covers
were laid for 900, and when the guests sat
down all the chairs were occupied. The
distinguished guests arrived during the
morning and after breakfast visited the
Homestead steel works and other indus
tries about Pittsburg.
The Hon. l.. M. Shaw, secretary of the
treasury, at the exercises held in honor
CT the memory Of the birthday of L. s..
Grant by the Americus club tonight in a
few words traced the development of the
country from scattered colonies, each in
dependent of the other and not infre-
quently antagonistic to it's present COM
manding position as "a unified sister of
states
Trend Toward Centralized Rule.
1.-THE trend of thought" he said, has
| been ever toward a central government. .
| He referred to the contending and antag-
| during seventy years of the national ex-
| istence, struggled for supremacy The one
| taught state sovereignty, the other found
voice in the immortal words of Webster,
| Liberty and union, now and forever,
| one and inSeparable."
He did not intimate a justification of
| the attempt on the part of the eleven
| states to establish confederacy, but
| mentioned as he passed that it had not
| then been determined that a state did
| not possess the right to withdraw at
| pleasure. He said it was by no means
| certain that the supreme court of the
: United States would have unanimously
| held, prior to the war of the Rebellion,
had the question been properly brought
| before it, that a state might not Secede.
| Thomas Jefferson usually, if not always,
referred to the United States in the plural
number, but" said he, ''the court of last
resort rendered its eternal decree at Ap-
| pomattox that the United States is, not
! are, one and inseparable." Z"
New Epoch Is Marked.
He then went on to show that fol-
| lowing this war came the period of in
| ternal improvement and the trend of
| events was toward a stronger central
| government, and lin one generation fol-
| lowing the great war we achieved COM
mercial independence and became at once
| the greatest the richest the wisest, the
| best housed, best fed, best clothed and
most contented people on earth.
Then occurred events which mark a
| new epoch. Just across our border Spain
] for 100 years had heaped cruelties upon
weak and defenselcss people. Without
4 pleading a personal grievance, the United
| States, by the unanimous vote of both
/ houses of congress, voluntarily nterven-
| cd on behalf of the oppressed. Why did
we not do this 100 years back? The COR
puscles of American blood were always
| red; and the Anglo-SaXons and their Teu-
| tonic kinfolk were always humane. Our
altruism had been appealed to again and
| again, but it had been appealed TO in
| vain.
] Disguise it as we will, deny it as we
| may, the element of self-interest was a
factor in the equation in 1898. We were
| masters of our own markets and were
| reaching out for new ones. Yes, CONNER
! eialism, if you please, had touched US;
| and so it was that our self-interest as
| well as our unselfshness were appealed
to. Then we gave notice to the world
that we proposed to police the street on
| which we lived, and we challenged him
who doubted our right to step into the
open"
EuIogizes the Army.
The secretary then pronounced an eu-
! logy upon the little army of 100000 men,
| aided and abetted by a matchless navy,
| which in 100 days brought Spain a sup
plant for peace He then showed that
as a result of war-whether wisely solved
| or not, he would not stop to discuss
! but as result of the war the United
States had become the undoubted owner
| of Porto Rico and the Philippine archi-
| pelago, and the voluntary guardian of
| Cuba.
THE trend of thought and of events
had been toward stronger central gov
ernment. If the door set ajar in the
spring Of 1898 by the unanimous vote of
/ both houses of congress ever swings wide
on it's hinges, the United States will
police not only the street on which it
| lives, but the entire Western hemisphere,
and with it all countries and all islands
| washed by the Pacific. / give not audi
( ence to the thought without misgivings
and | mention it only as the logical Sc
/ quence of the trend of our national de-
velopment."
He then referred to the difficulty with
| China, mentioning the. fact that a de-
tachment of the United States army and
! a limited fleet from the United States
navy had been sent to the relief OF not
| only our legation but of the legations of
! Christendom in the siege of Pekin and
| that, too, without an act of congress.
/ There was no precedent for such a
| course, but there has been no word of
| objection offered from any source In
! tensest partisanship," he said has not
demurred to the proposition that there
| is lodged in the executive head of this
| nation authority to protect under any sky
| and on any soil the official representa-
tives of the great republic
1 Stronger Government
There is now pending in the United
States court a suit begun by a representa-
| tive Of the executive department of this
! country to enjoin a great corporation or
| ganized under the laws of a certain state
| from owning, holding and voting the cap
ltal stock and controlling the policy of
certain transportation companies in a
distant portion of the country. Without
expressing an opinion as to probable re-
suits it Is interesting to note that the
| most pronounced disciples of state soy
= Continued ON Eighth Page.