p. 426, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Co. · New York · July 14, 1898

SENTIMENT against the new policy of imperialism upon which the nation is entering was voiced in a recent mass-meeting in Fanueil Hall, Boston, at which a large number were present. Mr. Moorfield Story was the principal speaker, and presented the following among other reasons against the annexation of Hawaii and the Philippines:—

“We are here to insist that a war begun in the cause of humanity shall not be turned into a war for empire, that an attempt to win for Cubans the right to govern themselves shall not be made an excuse for extending our sway over alien people without their consent. It is said that the people are unfit for self-government. Not such the spirit of our fathers. There was no exception in their generous statement that all men are equal before the law and have equal political rights.

“Nothing can wipe from our flag the disgrace if it floats over any but a free people. It should be enough that if we adopt this policy of conquest we are false to our principles and false to our express promises.

“But this case does not end here. We not only disregard that wise policy of non-intervention in European troubles which Washington preached and which until now we have followed. We become a military power, burdened with a standing army and an enormous navy, threatened with complications thousands of miles away, and exposed to constant apprehension. We take up the burden which is crushing Europe. Our domestic difficulties will be neglected, for our attention must be divided.

“When we undertake to govern subject peoples separated from us by half the world, let us remember how we despoiled the Indians at our doors, and how impossible it has been to keep that service pure. Let us not forget the carpetbag governments of our Southern brothers, whose complaints fell on deaf ears, though they spoke our language and we heard them every day. What, think you, shall we hear of wrong in Manila or the Ladrones, and how can we reform abuses there? Such a system means great increase of wealth and fresh fields for corruption. It means a growth of a class little accustomed to respect the rights of their inferiors. It means the spoils system enormously extended.”

There are some people who see the injustice and the danger to the nation involved in the new policy, but they are in a hopeless minority. The sentiment of the majority will prevail, and the ship of state will set sail upon the untried seas where so many nations before her have followed after glory and met shipwreck.