Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1899 — JUSTIFIES A CHANGE. [ARTICLE]

JUSTIFIES A CHANGE.

EXPANSION POLICY SHOWN NOT TO BE INCONSISTENT. Two Notable Instance* Serve to Prove that a Great Nation Can Alter the Purpose of a War After It Haa Been Begun. Senator Hoar and some of the other anti-expansionists declare that, because the Congressional resolution declaring war against Spain disavowed the purpose of making it a war of conquest, cannot consistently take and keep any of the territory that has been wrested irVm Spain. The anti-expan-sionists say we should stand by our first proposition. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat justifies the change in this nation’s position by pointing to two former instances in which the purposes of the American people were changed after they had begun war. On the 6th of July, 1775, the American Congress, after the* battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill had been fought, Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured, and an army of 20,000 men raised, with Washington as commander-in-chief, formally disavowed any intention on the part of the colonists to separate from Great Britain. Yet a year later Congress reversed its action and declared for separation from Great Britain. Again, in 1861, when the war of the rebellion had been in progress for three months, a resolution was passed by Congress, which President Lincoln signed, declaring it not to be the pur-

pose of the government to overthrow or interfere with the rights or institutions of the. seceded States, but simply to preserve the Union. Nevertheless the Emancipation Proclamation was subsequently issued, and slavery, the dearest institution of the seceded States, was destroyed. These two instances serve to prove that a great nation can change the purpose of a war after it has been begun without laying itself liable to the charge of being inconsistent, and they relieve the expansion policy, which was adopted as an incident of the war, from the charge of being “immoral and wicked,” as Senator Hoar gravely characterized it. The Rise in Prices. The level of prices of staple articles of general use was higher at the beginning of January than it had been at any former period since the fall of 1893, more than five years ago. As compared with the period when Bryan’s campaign for the Presidency was at its height, there has been a rise of about 18 per cent, in a little more than two years. In view of the fact that improvements in machinery, the larger use of capital and the changes from retail to wholesale methods of production which have been going on steadily in many branches of industry, all tend powerfully to keep prices from rising and even to force them down, this advance is remarkable. It would be very noteworthy if there had been no frantic assertions, believed apparently by more than 6,000,000 voters, that there could be no rise in prices unless the money standard of the country were lowered by silver inflation. That political phase of the question makes the very important advance in the last two years of double significance. When all phases of the subject are taken Into account it becomes evident that the upward tendency in values, which is still going on, is one of the most significant and hopeful signs of the times. The President’* Policy. The expansion policy of the President is not the permanent occupation of the recent Spanish possessions; It is not the annexing of them into the United States. It is not an expansion which will make the natives citizens of the United States. It is simply the exercise of the authority and good will of this country over peoples which have no government because of the driving out of Spain, to continue until a stable government of the natives can be organized. It prevents the anarchy which the emotional Senator Mason mistakes for human liberty and assists the well-dispos-ed natives to establish local governments upon the basis of social order, which is the result of the Intelligent exercise of freedom. The real expansion of those who advocate this policy Is a broadening of the influence of the United States with the nations with which we hold commercial relations.

To that end the United States may hold enough of the Philippines to afford ample naval stations, not for the intimidation of the natives, but to be footholds for our expanding traffic in the East.— Indianapolis JournaL Here I* an Issue for Bryan. An exchange suggests that If Brjan shall discover that 16 to 1 and antiexpansion do not promise to be profitable Issues for the campaign 6f next year, he take up the questibn whether the twentieth century begins In 1900 or 1901. Surely the suggestion is a good one, and the forcing of that Issue would promptly result in a division of the people on lines more distinctly marked than those which divided them on the silver Issue in 1896. The campaign would be one of the most exciting ever waged in this country. Of course, Bryan would take the side of those who believe that the next century begins on Jan. 1, 1900, and we have no doubt that the logic and eloquence of the Boy Orator would suffice to convince the people that he was right. It would be as easy for him to convince Americans that ninety-nine years make a century as it was for him to prove that sixteen ounces of silver were worth as much as one ounce of gold in 1896, when, as a matter of fact, it took about thirty-two ounces of silver to buy au ounce of gold In the open market. The fixing of a wrong and arbitrary time for the ending of the nineteenth century would not be a task at which the Boy Orator would hesitate, for did not the French revolutionists, who made the same sort of appeals to the populace that he has made, change the calendar and rename the mouths of the year? It Is to be hoped that Bryan will con-

sider this suggestion and feel the pulse of his party concerning its availability for use in the closing year of the century, when it would certainly be a timely subject of discussion.—Cleveland Leader. Abraham Lincoln’s Preference, No one ever made a better argument in favor of protection to American labor than was made by Abraham Lincoln fifty years ago. Said Mr. Lincoln: “I do not pretend to know much about the tariff question, but we are importing from Europe a great deal of railway rails and paying gold for them. If we buy, say, fifty tons of foreign rails at S2O per ton, for a mile of iron rails we pay the European workmen $2,500 of gold and get the metal. That is the Democratic plan. The Republican plan is different. It is for those rails to be made, say, in Pittsburg. Then,our workmen get the gold and we have the rajls besides and they pay out that money to other Americans for food, clothing and other necessaries and comforts of life. Which policy, gentlemen, do you think is best for the good of this country, the Democratic or the Republican? For my part, I prefer the Republican policy.”—Freeport (Ill.) Journal. Mormon “Apostle**” Bravado. “Apostle” Heber Grant, of the Mormon church, has assumed a Boss Tweed position in regard to the election of Mormon Roberts as a member of Congress, and the “apostle” asks: “What are the people of the United States going to do about it?” Well, “the people of the United States” are going to decide that matter under the following portion of Section 5 of the Constitution: “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members.” We do not quote from memory this time, but give the exact words by which the next House can oust Three Wives Roberts in spite of all the Mormon “apostles” outside of hades.—Des Moines Register. Tear*, Idle Tear*. All of the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by the faithful over the losses and disasters which the Dingley bill was to bring to onr foreign commerce proved to be only an idle waste of words and useless briny tears. —Carmi (Ill.) Times. Warning: to the Senate. The New York Herald warns the Senate that “every day It palters about the ratification of the Spanish treaty increases our difficulties with the Filipinos. Unfortunately, there are men In the Senate who are intent on complicating affairs. ntaginK to the Past. “Colonel Bryan clings to the past,” is the remark of a gold Democratic newspaper. Why not cling to the past, when it is his only chance? Mr. Bryan knows that to Ignore 16 to 1 Is to commit political hari-kari.