Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-10

ta, which has become incorporated. in substance and effect, into the constf-
 tuition of every state, as we'll as into the fourteenth amendment to the con- st1tution of the United States? Gan we hope for the respect of the civil lzed world. while proudly guarantee. ing to every citizen of the United
 States that no law shall be made or enforced which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, Or deny to any per- son the equal protection of the laws, and at the same time not only deny similar rights to the inhabitants of the Philippines. but take away from them the right of trial by jury. and place their lives and the disposition Of their property in the keeping of those whom we send to them to be their governors? We shall certainly rue it as nation if we make any such ait. tempt. Viewing the question even from the standpoint of national self lshness, there is no prospect that the twenty millions of dollars expended i'll the purchase of the islands and the six hundred and fifty millions said to have been since disbtlrsed will eyer come back to us. The accident of war brought the Philippines into our pos- session and we are not at liberty to disregard the responsibility which thus came to us, but that responsibili- ty will be best subserved by prepar- ing the islanders as rapidly as possible for self government and giving to them the assurances that it will come as soon as they are reasonably pre- pared for it. There need be no fear that the assertion so often made of late, that we have now become world power, will then be without support. Ours is a world power. and
 as such 1t must be maintained, but I deny that it is at all recently that the United States has attained that emi4 Ience. Our country became world power over a century ago, when, hav- ing thrown off foreign domination, the people established a free govern ment, the source of whose authority sprung, and was continuously to pro- ceed, from the will Of the people themselves. It grew as a world pow CT as its sturdy citizens, to whose nat ural increase were added immigrants from the old world seeking to obtain here the liberty and prosperity denied them in their own countries. spread over the face Of the land, reduced the praiTies and forests to cultivation, built cities, constructed highways and railroads, till now nation which at the formation of the government num- bered only three millions in popula- ton. has become eighty millions, and from ocean to ocean and the lakes to the gulf, the country is the abode Of a free and prosperous people, ad- vanced iii the highest degree in the learning and arts of civilization. It is the liberty, the advancement and the prosperity of its citizens, not any career of conquest, that make the country a world power. This condi. ton rye owe to the bounty of Pr0vi- tlence, unf0lded in the great natural resources of the country, to the wis, dom of OUT fathers manifested in the form of government established by them, to the energy, industry, moral character and law abiding spirit of the people themselves.
 We are not military people, bent on conquest, or engaged in extending our domains in foreign lands, or desir- uus of secu1dng natural advantages, however great, by force; but a people loving peace, not only for ourselves, l but for all the nations of the earth.
 The display of great military arnaa- l ments may please the eye and, for the moment, excite the pride of the citf. zen, but it cannot bring the country the brains. brawn and muscle of a single immigrant, nor induce the in. vestment here of a dollar of capital. l Of course such armament as may be necessary for the security of the country and the protection of the rights of its citizens, at home or abroad, must be maintained. Any other course would be not only false economy, but plisillanimous. I pro test. however. against the feeling, now 1 far to prevalent, that by reason of
 the commanding position we have as
 par in the disputes and broils of for
 eign countries: and that because we
 gave grown great we should intervene
 in every important question that l arises in other parts of the world. also protest against the erection of