The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1904-09-10
IMPERIALISM.
Joseph Pulitzer Points 0at a Danger
That MenaceS the Republic.

That MenaCeS the kepaDliC.
What is imperialism? 1t is not mere
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 lingo
exploitation abroad among weaker peo-
pies, ruled with no regard for equal
right, in colonies and remote depen-
denotes.
TO see imperialism full blown one
must 90 to England. At home English
institutions are free. The Cabinet is
a committee of Parliament. The King
has not thousandth part of your pow
er and patronage. He could not jump
doctor, even d very skilful and agree
able one-not even Treves, who saved
his life-into a major generalship, or
even a lieutenancy. He cannot APP
point a fourth-class postmaster. He
has none of the enormous powers over
corporations which enable you, first,
to make an inquisition into the secrets
of every combination of capital; second,
to smash one such combination as an
example, and, third, to send that grand
inquisitor Cortelyou, who was your
own private secretary and later Cab
met member for commerce and corpor-
atoms, 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 Gov
eminent, the actual commandment
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
", 100000 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
fagrantl.' violate. You dictate to Con-
gress what measures it shall pass and
what it shall kill. You would be Il
very great potentate, even if you OBJ
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 comparison
is merely fashiOn-plate.
But the United Kingdom, with
43,000,0OO inhabitants, rules over
$50, 100000 people in non elf-govern-
| ing crown colonies and dependencies.
| The welfare of one-Quarter of the pop
uIation of the globe is absolutely at the
mercy of the governing classes of
Great Britain. Three hundred million
people in India, under the compulsion
| of Il quarter of a million soldiers, live
and work 20 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, IL England
everybody is a subject of the King
even dukes. In America we have no
subjects-we have no room for either
| subjects, Serfs or slaves. We are free
men. Every citizen is a soverefgn-or
| was, in theory at least. England is
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 sirth-all ideas odious
to Americans, all representing privi-
! legged classes, all Numerically opposed
to true AmericaniSm, all antagoniStic
to our own system.
Besides, only one hour separates
England from the Continent of Europe.
| whose 4O0,0O0,000 people have always
hated her, and would have destroyed
her but for her protecting moat of salt
water patrolled by a 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 politi-
cal internal problems pressing for solu-
ton; with the foundation of the Consti-
tuition undermined by lawless unions
on one side and lawless trusts on the
other; with law and order and prosper
ity threatened by labor wars, with the
yeast of socialism and anarchy fer
menting in the public mind; with nine
million negroes to be educated and
fitted into some sort of tolerable living
relations with their white neighbors,
you propose to divert the nations
thought and energy from the duties
that crowd upon it at home to career
of rowdy adventure abroad