THE NEW POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES.
By G. B. Thompson
Whether the results of the recent war between Spain and the United States will be more fatal to our enemy across the sea than to America, is as yet an open question. While the navy of the United States has been destroying fleets, the victory has been filling the minds of the statesmen with the imperialistic idea of government; and a desire to form an empire around the globe on which the orb of day would never cease to shine, is expressed. Certain it is that territory has been annexed, and a “colonial policy” entered upon. The “Monroe doctrine,” which has been the watchword of Americans, has practically been abandoned. That the United States will retain a foothold in the Philippine Islands seems to be a foregone conclusion. Once this is done, it will be impossible to avoid becoming mixed up in the imbroglio of the European nations. The entangling relations, and unsettling of the foundations of the governments, are viewed with alarm by many leading men of the country. Alien territorial aggrandizement, and our suddenly joining the burdened military powers of the world, loading ourselves with vast debts and greatly increased annual expenditures, it is feared will be the road which leads from trouble to war. In a dinner recently given in aid of Sanderson Academy, Charles Elliot Norton, professor of fine arts in Harvard University, in a speech touching the late war, said:— “And yet our hearts have been heavy with new weight of care, and the very brightness of the sunshine has but deepened by contrast the cloud of our sorrowful thoughts—sorrowful that our nation should have turned its back upon its old ideals, and, standing at the parting ways, should have chosen the ancient path, familiar to the Old World, worn by the bloody feet of hapless generations, and which has never led to anything but ill—the path of aggressive war, of foreign conquest, of alien territorial aggrandizement—the path that leads from trouble to trouble. The black and brutal visage of war has indeed been lighted up from time to time during the summer by the gallant deeds of our men in the service, and by the good conduct and marvelous good-fortune of our navy, and by the general temper of humanity displayed so soon as the actual fight was over by both officers and men. But it has taken on a deeper shade of gloom from the needless sufferings which our brave soldiers have had to endure from the lack of due provision for their needs, alike in camp, on field, and in hospital. It has been a miserable spectacle of incompetency, for which account must be rendered and penalty exacted. “Peace has nominally come. The actual conflict has ended, but less than 100 days of war have resulted in a revolution in the United States. The foundations on which the republic has rested have been unsettled; the principles upon which the government depends have been violated; we have undertaken obligations which neither our institutions nor our national character enable us properly to discharge; we, the one great non-military power in the world, have suddenly joined the ranks of the nations burdened with great armies and navies; we have loaded ourselves with an enormous additional debt, and with an enormous increase of annual expenditures, a permanent oppressive tax upon the industry of the people; and, further, whatever disposition may be made of the Philippines, we are already, through holding them and claiming the right to dispose of them, brought into entangling relations with the nations of the Old World, and run the risk of losing the inestimable boon which has hitherto been ours.” And having entered that “ancient path” “worn by the bloody feet of hapless generations,” will we fare better than they? Before us lies the example of the republic of Rome. When she entered that path “worn by the bloody feet of hapless generations,” the historian was compelled to narrate her “decline and fall.” Let us beware. G. B. THOMPSON.