Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1902 — Imperialism Not an Issue. [ARTICLE]

Imperialism Not an Issue.

The intelligent and really influential class of Democratic newspapers are not at all backward about admitting that it is going to be impossible to make an issue out of militarism or an-ti-imperialism In this campaign. The Detroit Free Press, the leading Democratic newspaper of Michigan, which has never been a champion of expansion or of American occupation of the Philippine Islands, declares that “the whole matter is eliminated from the present congressional campaign by reason of President Roosevelt’s course during the past few mouths.” Anent the charges of cruelty which have been alleged with such incessent vociferation, the Free Press holds that the President “has taken the matter out of the field of political controversy by his unqualified condemnation of acts of savagery on the part of the comparatively few offenders in the army, and particularly by his stinging reproof of General Smith;” while on the Issue of the permanent retention of the island, “again the President spiked the guns of the enemy by leaving this an open question and displaying an admirable conservatism.” It is safe to say that the Free Press represents the progressive and thinking element of the Democratic party, but as that element is not accustomed to dominating the Democratic party It is quite likely that the campaign will present the familiar spectacle of Democratic editors and spell-binders erecting men of straw for the sole purpose of beating them Into the earth again.—Des Moines Capital.