The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-17
The Pageant of the Ships
BY David Starr Jordan.

I am asked to say a word in re
gard to the Great White Pageant of
the Ships, and its final significance,
when the doings of today pass into
the illumination of history. [ must
leave to others ~he descriptions of the
great vessels themselves-the huge,
solid, costly, fighting machines which
have taken the place of the white
winged f1otiIlas and invincible armadas
of an earlier, equally heroic, but far
less scientific epoch I must leave to
others the thrill of patriotism which
this sign of the might of democracy
must evoke when the great ships pass
within the Heads in stately file to their
peaceful anchorage within the Golden
Gate. I must leave others to do JUS
tice to the brave seamen who handle
their ships so skilfully at sea, and
themselves with dignity on land. 1t
shall be no part of my paper to at,
tempt Justice to the finely trained off,
GERS which our Naval Academy sends
out. men who are at once accomplished
gentlemen and thoroughly trained en-
gineers-dashing fighters when need be
men who. taking all things into con-
sideration, constitute today the ablest
commanders and navigators the world
can offer.
We may take all this for granted and
a thousand times more. The great fleet
is on our coasts We have all said our
part about the facts. Our question is
this; In the history of the world-in
the history of the United States-what
does it all mean?
This we may say: Tt is an event of
the highest Importance, within its
class. Tt is an epoch marking event,
but not an epoch-making one. 1t is
not epoch making, for when the last
furrow of the last keel fades away in
the sea-when all s.the captains and
the kings DEPART matters will go on
in America, the affairs of the Pacific
Coast will shape themselves very much
as they did before. The presence of
the Navy is not the cause of the be-
ginning of a new era, nor will the times
change when it passes on to new praises
or to newer scenes of display. When
new epoch is opened in history we
shall behold a new heaven and a new
earth. Such epochs we have seen in
California in annexation and in the dis
covery of gold. The foundation of uni
versities. the destruction of great
cities, the extinction of graft, are each
epoch making in its way. But to this
class the coming of the feet does not
belong.
But for all that, it has it's signifi-
cance,-tremendous, far-reaching. 1t
marks an epoch if it does not create it.
Al iS Como
gree the coming of age on the part OF
the Pacific States. They are full-grown
They are on the map.
They have the same right to protec-
tion, the same right to pageantry that
the Atlantic States have. If our Re,
public has a feet it is our fleet. Tt is
as much at home at San Diego or Seat
tie as at Boston or Charleston. 1t be-
longs to Portland, Oregon, quite as
much as to Portland, Maine. The Re-
public Of the Stars and Stripes is one,
equal and indivisible. 1t faces on the
Pacific Ocean as it rests against the
Atlantic. and whatever need it has for
ships applies to both the coasts alike.
Again the coming of the ships marks
the discovery of Asia. We have found
out Asia, for we'll or III, and we have
foothold within her borders. We have
discovered Asia and Asia has discov-
cred us. The irresponsible West has
pressed forward until it has reached
the immovable East, +the unmitigated
East as Thoreau called it, but we
shall find that 1t has many miIIgations.
The Yellow Peril of the East lies not
in its numbers. still less in it's military
possibilities. 1t lies in it's poverty, its
oppression, it's weakness, its conquest
bv disease When it gains in wealth.
in intelligence, in seif-respect, in SAM
tation, it will cease to be dangerous in
war or in peace. The Imperial Univer-
sity of Toxic has done for forty years
its work for peace, justice, prosperity,
commerce and self-respect of man. It
is the most valuable asset of our neigh
Dor, Japan. 1t has cost as much as a
first-class battleship. It has done the
work impossible to thousand ships
Sumner once said that the cost of the
warship Ohio was just equal to that of
Harvard College. But a million bat
tleships would not make good the lack
of Harvard College and her sister in.
stitutions. Just now, we are told, the
Imperial University of Pekin is being
IQuIQeu along lines S1uIldF TO Luose OF
the great institution of Japan. If SO,
this is the best proof that the Empire
of China is to take her place among the
sisterhood of nations. With education,
cleanliness, self-respect, science, art,
commerce, the Yellow Peril is allayed
forever.
- Give him the chance at home
That he makes for himself elsewhere
And the star of the jelly-fsh nation
Mid others viii shine as fair
The coming of the feet is sign that
we recognize the Importance of Asiatic
trade Trade implies equal relations
The profit in buying and selling are
equal and reciprocal. All international
trade is barter. Those who have moth
ing to sell have nothing with which
to buy. A prosperous China would
mean a booming California. A poor
desolate, and plague-stricken China
means a malign influence along ou1
whole Pacific Coast.
The best asset of Commercial Cali
| fornia is the good will of Japan and
| fsSfDa Tho hest ouaran+aa IF tho do