Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1904-09-19
IMPERIALISM.
Joseph Pulitzer Points Out a Danger
That Menaces the Republic.

external show, thrones, or crowns, or
sceptres. 1t is the spirit Of coercion,
of conquest, of arbitrary power, OF
force, of war, of national aggrandize-
ment, of military self-seeking, Of jingo
exploitation abroad among weaker
peoples, ruled with no regard for equal
right. in colonies and remote dependen-
cies.
To see imperialism full blown one
must go to England. At home English
institutions are free. The Cabinet is
a committee of Parliament. The King
has not a thousandth part of your
power and patronage. He could not
lump a doctor, even a very skilful and
agreeable one-not even Treves, who
saved his life-into a major-general-
ship, or even a lieutenancy. He cannot
appoint fourth-class postmaster. He
has none Of the enormous powers over
corporations which enable you, first, to
make an inquisition into the secrets oil
every combination Of capital; second,
to smash one such combination as an
example, and, third, to send that grand
inouisitor Cortslyou, who was your
own private secretary and later Cabl-
net member for commerce and corpo-
rations. armed with all his deadly Sc
crets, to pass the contribution box
among the others.
The members of your Cabinet are
your clerks, not your masters. You
yourself are the actual head OF the
Government, the actual commander-in-
chief of the army and navy, the Trainer
of policies, the dispenser of patronage
and the arbiter Of peace or war. You
appoint or control, directly or Indirect
ly, 200 900 office-holders, most OF whom
hold their places at your pleasure. You
name the judges who interpret the
very laws you treat with contempt or
aasrantiy violate. You dictate to Con-
gress what measures it shall pass and
what it shall kill. You would be
very great potentate, even II yea oo-
served the constitutional limitations OF
your office. Probably you exercise
more actual, personal power than any
monarch on the globe.
The King of England, by compari'
son, is merely fashion-plate.
But the United Kingdom, with 49,
600, 600 inhabitants, rules over 3SO,eoO,-
600 people in non-self-governing crown
colonies and dependencies. The well
fare of one-quarter of the population
of the globe is absolutely at the mercy
of the governing classes of Great BTU
ain. Three hundred million people In
India. under the compulsion of a quar-
ter of a million soldiers, live and work
to furnish official berths to English
younger sons and profit for English
capitalists.
But England has no written Consti-
tuition. But England has no Declara-
ton of independence. But England is
not based upon the idea of liberty and
equality. On the contrary, in England
everybody is a subject of the king
even dukes. In America we have no
subiects-we have no room fer either
subjects, serfs or slaves. We are free
men. Every citizen Is a sovereign
or was, in theory at least England IL
based upon the idea Of privilege, Of
birth, OF rank-yes, OF lawmakers not
elected by the people, not selected for
merit or fitness, but lawmakers by the
mere accident of birth-all ideas odious
to Americans, all representing privi-
legged classes, all Numerically opposed
to true Americanism, all antagenistc
to our own system.
Besides, only one hour separates
England from the Continent of Europe,
whose 4O0,OOO,OoO people have always
QHIeQ QST, anu WOulu uofC uCotioySN
her but for her protecting moat Of salt
water patrolled by great navy. She
depends for life upon food brought
across the ocean, and sea power is the
condition of existence of her widely
scattered empire.
With our own vast continent to be
developed; with political and business
corruption gnawing at our national
life; with the gravest social and po-
litical internal problems pressing for
solution; with the foundations Of the
Constitution undermined by lawless
unions on one side and lawless trusts
on the other; with law and order and
prosperity threatened by labor wars;
with the yeast Of socialism and an
archy fermenting in the public mind;
with nine million negroes to be edu-
cated and fitted into some sort of toll