The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-29
THE CENTRkL|z|NG
OF GOVERNMENT
Shaw on the Trend of Ma.
tionaI Development.
WE WANT MORE VESSELS
Well Wrest From England Sover-
eighty Of the Pacific.
WAR FOR CUBA NOT WHOLLY UNSELFISH
Shaw Declares Before the Americas Club T
There is Growing Demand For Gov
eminent Control of Industrial
Combinations,
Combinations.
(By the Associated Press.)

Club of this city. in commemoration OF
the birthday of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant,
was held at the Hotel Henry tonight and
because of the many bright oratorical
stars was one of the most brilliant of
the many banquets given by this well
known organization. Hon. p. c. Knox,
Attorney General of the United States,
acted as POSTMASTER, and seated about
him were Hon. l.. M. Shaw, Secretary of
the Treasury; Hon. H. c. Payne, Post
master General Congressman Charles F.
Littlefield, of Maine, and others.
Mr.. Knox introduced Hon. Leslie M.
Shaw. who responded to the toast Gov
ernmental Evolution"
Secretary Shaw hastily and in few
words traced the development of the
country from scattered colonies to it's
present commanding position as uni
fled sisterhood of States. 1.-The trend of
thought he said, 'has been ever to-
wards a central government" He re-
ferred to the contending and antagonis-
tic schools of political thought that
during seventy years of the national ex-
istence struggled for supremacy
He did not intimate a justification OF
the attempt on the part of eleven States
to establish a Confederacy, but men
toned as he passed that it had not then
been determined that a State did not
possess the right to withdraw at pleas
ure. He said it was not by any means
certain that the Supreme Court of the
United States would have unanimously
70 hn iy;l had fhe
question been properly brought before
it, that State might not secede
Thomas jefferson usually if not always
referred to the United States in the
plural number, "but,' said he, 1.-The court
of last resort rendered it's eternal decree
at Appomattox that the United States is
not are. one and inseparable."
Referring to the war with Spain he
said:
Disguise it as we will, deny it as W.
may. the element of self-interest was q
factor in the equation in 1898 We were
masters of our own markets, and were
reaching out for new ones. Yes, com
mercialism, if you please, had touched
US; and so it was that our self-interest
as we'll as our unselfishness was ap-
pealed to. Then we gave notice to the
world that we proposed to police the
street on which we lived. and we chal-
lenged him who doubted our right to steI
into the open"
The Secretary then said that as a re-
suit of the war the United States hat
become the undoubted owner of Porte
Rico and the Philippine archipelago ant
the voluntary guardian of Cuba. 'Tht
trend of thought and of events had beer
toward a stronger central government
IL the door set ajar in the spring of 1885,
by the unanimous vote of both houses
of Congress. ever swings wide on it!
hinges, the United States will police no
only the street on which it lives, but tht
entire western hemisphere and with i
all countries and all islands washed b!
the Pacific. / give not audience to thu
thought without misgivings, and / men
ton it only as the logical sequence o
the trend of our national development.
He then referred to the difficulty will
China, mentioning the fact that detach
ment of the United States army and
limited fleet from the United States nav.
had been sent to the relief of not onl.
our legation, but of the legations o
Christendom, in the siege of Pekin, AM
! that, too, without an act of Congress
There was no precedent for such {
course. but there has been no word o
objection offered from any source. In
| tensest partisanship has not demurre
! to the proposition that there is lodges
J in the executive head of this nation an
| thority to protect, under any sky and OF
any SOIL the official representatives o
| the great republic The trend of though
and the trend of events is still toward
| a stronger government.
"There is now pending in the Unite'
| States court a suit begun by repre
sentative of the executive department
of this country to enjoin a great corpor
alton. organized under the laws Of
, certain State, from owning, holding ant
voting the capital stock, and controlling
| the policy of certain transportation
companies in a distant portion of III
country. Without expressing an opin
ion as to probable results, it is interest
, ing to note that the most pronounced
disciples of State sovereignty complain
mot of this action aud utter no othe
criticism than STAT it should have beef
| commenced earlier. Note the demand
for national regulation of railways, o
express companies of telegraph com
panies, of insurance. and of trusts
! Note the demand for uniformity in Ia
i Dor laws, divorce laws, interest and tax
alton laws. The trend of events and tn
+, trend of thought seem to be still to
| wards a stronger and moro centralized
government.
LAS after the Civil War the natio
entered upon an extensive policy of in
ternal improvement, substituting so Ion!
as necessary continental lines o
| railway, and permanently continuing
[ the substituting of rivers and harbors
so after the latter war we appear t
| be entering upon an equally progressiv
| policy of external Improvement No
as the crow flies, but as ships sail it i
nearer from Liverpool &c San FranCisc
via Cape Horn than from New York t