The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-11-04

cite hopes among our subjects which
the administration Is unwilling to
crafty.
Nov what does this mean? Demo-
cratic government is essentially gov.
erned by public decision That deci.
sion must be enlightened by the truth
as to matters of public interest, the
fullest possible information to be
frankly furnished by the government
It must, in order to serve its true
end, be actively free, so as to illumine
every side of the question to be de-
cided And now we are told that we
should not freely discuss decision of
such Importance or become colonial
empire; that the principles Of the
Declaration of Independence, the fun.
damental principles Of our republic,
should not be mentioned In connection
with the matter, lest our colonial sub
jects hear of it, and that, as the ad-
ministration knew this business best,
the people should leave 1t to the ad-
mfnistration to determine the course
to be taken concerning It.
This is only the initial, tentative
attempt to dominate public opinion in
behalf of the government. But there
will be more of 1t, If the-imperialistic
spirit is permitted to prevail. In this
respect we must not fail to keep In
view the great power welded by the
president in the conduct of our foreign
relations. The constitution provides
that only congress shall have power
to declare war. But it is within the
power of the president, IL he desires
war, to create, by his conduct of our
foreign relations, situations which
make war inevitable. 1t may happen
that on such occasion congress, being
opposed to war, would not consent to
it If consulted before hand but 1t may
be confronted by things already done,
by accomplished facts, which make
the escape from war exceedingly diff
flcult II not impossible.
THE president may then force a
war upon the county In spite Of the
opposition of the congress. He may
do this, keeping, as to the exercise
of his powers, within the letter of the
constitution, although flagrantly yio-
lating its spirit and intent And he
may do this almost sure of the subse-
quent approval and support of con-
gress which, when an accomplished
fact has put our country in an atti-
tude hostile to foreign power, is
usually very reluctant to disavow the
acts of our government. We have an
illustration of this in the history of
the Panama affair,.it being very doubt
full whether congress, even the Repub-
lican part of it, would, if previously
consulted, have approved the policy
pursued by the administration, while
the accomplished fact easily COM
.manded the acceptapce of the ma
iority.
This power of the executive is evi
IDENTIFY very dangerous one-danger-
Gus to the peace of the country as
well as to the integrity Of our insti-
tutions--unless the president cherish
es a conscientious respect for the
constitutional limits of his power and
an overruling desire religiously to OBJ
StlNS TIC DDilll anu ih'Clltt wen
as the letter, of the constitution as
well as the innate love of peace and
fair dealing. You may Judge for your
selves how dangerous is such power
underithe influence of imperialistic
tendency, with it's lust of conquest
and dominion, its love of adventure
and military achievement and its
proneness to impulsive action and dra-
matte display.
"The. imperialistic tendency armed
with that power will be all the more
dangerous when it is at the same
time armed with an ample supply of
fighting material ready for action.
Until very recent period we enjoyed
the priceless blessing of living in
perfect peace and security without
bearing the burden of large army
and navy, costing untold millions a
other nations, groaning under heavy
military and naval expenditures, en-.
wed us most heartily. Our imperial
lists now tell us that this must cease
to be so. According to them we must
have much larger army in proper
tion than before, and our secretary OF
the navy assures us that we must
have the biggset navy in the world
| whatever the cost
Have you ever seen anybody able
to give you an intelligent and salts
| factory reason why we must have
those things? Some say that we must
have them to protect our commerce
ask, then, has there ever been q
| single moment since the year 1S1l
when our commerce suffered in the
least from the want Of big navy tc
protect it? Others say we must have
1t to enforce the Monroe doctrine
Was there ever before or since oui
civil war, single occasion when the
Monroe doctrine failed, so to speak
to enforce itself without our having {
| big army or navy?