The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 10, 1900, Page 18

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 1900 Tall. BRYAN AND THE BOERS. OWN in Indiana when a politician begins talk- ing for effect, without heartfelt sentiment or good horse sense in what he says, the plain D SUNDAY % JUNE 10, 1900 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. e B e #ddress Al Communica‘ions to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. MANAGER'S OFFICE. . PUBLICATION OFFICE. . Market and Third, Telephone Press . EDITORIAL ROOM ..217 to 221 Stevemsom St. Telephone Press 202. Delivered by Oarriers, 15 Cents Per Week. Single Coples, 5 Cen Terms by Matl, Including Postage: CALL (including Sun CALL (including Sund: LY CALL (including Sunday), 3 months LY CALL—By St Month. YAY CALL - subscriptions. Eample coples will be forwarded when requested. OAKLAND OFFICB. vess.1118 Broadway C GEORGE KROGNESS, Maznager Foreign Advertising, Marquette Building, Chicago. (ong Distance Telephone *'Central 2613.”) NEW C. C. CARLTON, YORK CORRESPONDENT: . Heraid Square NEW YORK REPE STEPHEN B. SMITH NTATIVE: ..30 Tribune Building CHICAGO NEWS STANDS: Eherman House; P. O. News Co.; Great Northern Hotel; Premont Hcuse; Auditorium Hotel. NEW YORK VS STANDS: Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; A. Brentsno, 31 Union Square; Murr; Hotel. Wellington Hotel Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES 27 Montgomery, corner of Clay, open wntll 530 o'clock. 300 Hayes, open until 9:30 o'clock. 638 930 o'clock. £15 Larkin, open until 1841 Miseion, open until 10 o'clock. 221 Market, % o'clock. 1096 open until 9 o'clock open until 9 o clock. ason Eddy streets—Spectalties, ater—Vaudeville every afternoon and rk—Coursing to-day. k—Coursing to-day. Un Ingleside Cou Recreation Py FORESTS OR FAMINES. alling nature of the famine tion of men’ of science has a study of the forces and con- It 1s of course apparent to the drought and the drought f rain, but that explanation does not ' search for primary causes. In t loses the st ng fact that the In increasing in frequency and in « nt one is far more disastrous There must be some law t preceded it 1 palling effects, and in the nent authorities that law is to ic s to water supply. In s in India are due to the destruc- as that destruction ex- mncrea ent of British law in India of the country was uncultivated. When d woods jungles were cleared awa: moisture were destroyed. Thus there is r storage in the land than in forme rary failure of the rains in their sea- country parched and barren and a s over the dand. that something of the same evil is to be y along the Nile. British estruction has begun there sult. Furthermore it is asserted ngly inexhaustible forests of Cen- i the Congo, have been so e within the short time of that the effect on the water is already noticeable. on the statements of these authori- ribune points out the significance “These lessons, all three of them, are applicable to the United States. We have cnown famine in some of the Western States align cffects of drought. Some of our indling as in the Nile, and threaten to as those of the Sahara have done. And if in the stupendous arboreal wilderness of the Congo it is becoming necessary to devise protective meas- 11 be said of such necessity in a country essly denuded of its woodlands as our own? re cannot be violated with impunity. rests as mediums of natural irrigation. ans we lose the end. The law is rk 1 says: entirely 2w full brimming streams. And sun-scathed hillsides where then dense, primeval forests. It is cause and But should not rational men t, nothing more. n is forest preservation more vital than to With us the issue is one of imperative A famine in California would sound gely indeed, and yet to another generation it e familiar if something be not done to check the State. ency. voirs of our winter rains. The way of the transgressor in San Francisco is likely to become hard indecd. If new arrangements are not made juries will have to render their judg- ments on empty stomachs, and man is proverbially severe when he is hungry. Since our Police Commissioners have decided that the sale of food does not make restaurants of saloons it would be interesting to know if the honorable gen- tlemen consider that the sale of liquor makes saloons of restaurants. ‘ Recent discussions in Congress of armor-plate man- ufacture would indicate ‘that coats of mail may be necessary for the oratorical combatants. Several repu- tations have alrgady been shattered. o people dismiss him with the remark that “he is runnin’ emptyins.” The homely domestic phrase is derived from the Telephone Press 204 | condition of a cider barrel when it is nearly all drawn and bits of pomace and dregs begin to run through | the faucet. These have to be emptied out, and hence {| are emptyings, and when a barrel runs “emptyins” it | means that the good cider is all gone. | Mr. Bryan has been suspected of having exhausted | whatever ideas he had in stock when he began his icarccr of volubility., Those ideas were not of very | good quality, and the “emptyins” that went with them | were, of course, as much inferior to the dregs that go | with a higher class of ideas as the dump of a lime- in their burdens upon the people and which occasion well founded discontents. There is a strong sentiment in favor of a repeal of the stamp duties, and a particularly strong support is given to a proposition to repeal the tax upon pro- prietary medicines and other articles of a similar na- ture. It has been pointed out that all stamp taxes are a source of vexation, and especially those on tele- grams and express receipts, where the irritation is aggravated by the consciousness on the part of the public that the burden has been shirked by the cor- porations. These proposals in the way of reform have been repeatedly urged in the East and may be safely leit to the people of that section. There is one tax which rests lightly upon the East but.is a heavy one in California that ought to be urged by our dele- gation in Congress vpon the attention of the com- mittee, and that is the tax upon wine served in bottles. In the East there is produced very little table wine and not much is consumed there, but in California, where wine is served with lanch and din- | ner at the popular restaurants and forms a common | have not been edified by Bryan's anti-expansion | article of diet among the people, the tax is a compara- | views, nor has any thoughtful person been impressed | tively heavy one. Moreover, it is an unfair tax, since by the mushy splutter in which his pro-Boer views | it does not fall equally upon all the people of the have sought expression. He has pretended that our | Union. Tt is a tax upon California rathe ~ . upon | Government could side, efficiently, with the Boers, | the country at large, and it is to be hoped ti.. - ‘sion | when he knows, if he knows anything, that to repeat | committee will remove it along with all other unjust the action of France in our Revolution can be done | features of the act. Savings Bank of Great Britain make the para- only by paying the price France paid for the alliance. | l 2 doxical showing that the thrift of the British and that was a war with England. If Bryan would ever be frank and honest with the people, the proper | measure of his principles and capacity would be more workingman has reached a point where it has almost become unthrifty, and the Postal Savings Bank has saved up so much capital for use in commerce that it v taken. Ii he desire to carry out the in- ations and half-expressed intentions which he has | has well nigh rendered capital unprofitable by re- ducing the rate of interest. uttered, let him frankly declare that, if elected Presi--| dent, he will demand that England restore the inde- pendence of the Orange Free State and the Trans- | nd will advise Congress to meet her refusal with. of war. Unless he has this policy in | It appears there are now about 8,000,000 depositors | in the postal savings banks of the kingdom, and that the sum of their deposits is about $750,000,000. Upon that vast sum the Government fis at present paying interest at the rate of 24 per cent, but has not been J kiln is inferior to that of a gold mine aiflicted with a | telluride combination. The intelligent anti-expansionists of this country BRITISH POSTAL SAVINGS. ECENTLY published statistics of the Postal va aration view and would carry it out, all his thespian and | | Every intelligent American knows that unless our | | Government iz willing to go to war for the Boers, as | a Government it can posi tively do nothing for them | at all. Our people can express sympathy for the re- publics and they do so, heartily. They can contribute | scquently there was last year a deficit of about $250,- able to find an investment for all the money, and con- | are accustomed to look beneath the | nly fixed and industry was sure of pro- | of country, and as a result the natural | see trickling rills where in | funds, and have done so. They can enlist and fight | under the Boer flag, and have done so, violating no | law provided they omit the formality of enlistment until But our Gov- ter they leave cur jurisdiction. ance, which will bt also a declaration ainst Great Britain. If this is what Bryan proposes let him say so. It is all that he can do, and the only thing that he can do, as President, of the least benefit to the Boers. All other talk is for effect, | to influence votes, to get support by a false pretense. In one of his late interviews he said he hoped the Boers would migrate to this country to defend us | clare a Boer | of wa be made for them by expelling members of the Re- publican party for sympathy with Great Britain. This is not only demagogic talk, it is the drivel of a weak- ling. The iree people of the United States have al- | ways defended their own libertics and are quite ca- | pable of doing so now, without inviting strangers | from any quarter to do it for them. - | There is no evidence that Republicans any more | than Democrats have sympathized with Great Brit- ain African quarrel. Morgan and Pettus, two of Bryan’s Senators, have steadily voted against any Congressional expression of sympathy for | the Boers. Within the last six weeks the Bryan party bama at its primaries has indorsed Morgan for ction by a vote of more than two to one. Why not get some Boers to go to Alabama, the birthplace of the slave-holding Confederacy, and help maintain liberty against imperialism on the ground where Great Britain is indorsed by a vote of two to one of Bryan's n party? Mr. Bryan will find that he cannot wheedle people | out of votes to make him President by these flat- | headed criticisms of the Republican party. He must what he would do under the same circum- Would he make this country head a Euro- side of the South | | declare stances. ! pean concert in demanding of England the indepen- dence of the Dutch republics? If so, will he explain what becomes of the Monroe doctrine when he re- moves its counterbalance in the non-interference in | European affairs by this country? The Boer envoys have been instructed to say that such a European concert under the leadership of the United States is what they expected. In all sympathy for their un- fortunate situation, we must insist that this Govern- ment could do nothing of the kind. That is just as well understood ir Europe as it here. Nor, if a European concert had been organized to address an identical note to Great Britain in behalf of the Boers, could this country in any way interfere, by any sup- | port of England, for that would also be a repudiation of the Monroe doctrine. Let Mr. Bryan wring out his handkerchief, wept wet with sympathy for the Boers, and tell what he would have done ip their behalf differently from Presi- dent McKinley. THE REVISION OF THE WAR TAX W l it gave the subject sufficient consideration to reach the conclusion that revision is necessary, and accordingly a committee has been appointed to sit during the recess for the purpose of devising the best | means of making the revision and of reducing taxes. | From that committee a report is expected as soon as Congress reassembles, and the people may therefore be assured the Republican party will lighten the bur- den of war taxes without any delay further than that | required to make the reductions equitably to all con- cerned. The Democrats will of course attempt to make something of campaign capital out of the refusal of the Republicans to undertake the desired revision during the recent session. There were, however, good reasons for the refusal. In the first place, the Lill itself is a complex one, and the interests affected are many; and in the second place reports made to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury were to the effect that it has been impossible up to this time to determine what reduction should be made. Under such circumstances prudence dictated delay until the subject could be fully investigated and the reductions made in such a way as to relieve the public of as much of the burden as can be done without injury to the treasury and to apportion the relief with fairness to 21l concerned. In making the revision. two duties are imposed upon the committee. There must be a thorough re- consideration of the language of the act so as to climinate from it those ambiguities by which the ex- press and the telegraph companies have managed to escape the payment of the taxes which it was the manifest intention of Congress to impose upon them. Furthermore, in reducing the taxes care must be ex- ercised to remove those taxes which are most unfair | | HILE Congress did not succeed in revising Sokd ernment must{stand neutral unless it is ready to de- | against imperialism, and intimated that room wouid | the war tax at the session which has just closed | 000, which had to be made up out of taxes. Such being the condition of the banks, a discussion Lias arisen concerning the expediency of maintaining pthem, and the issue will soon be brought before Par- | | liament. It is argued on one side that it is unfair for the Government to offer 2J4 per cent interest to de- positors in the savings banks when it has no use for the money; when it can borrow at less rates all the money it needs; and when it has to impose taxes upon the whole people in order to be able to pay in- terest to the 8,000,000 savings bank depositors, com- posing as they do hardly more than one-fiith of the ropulation. | Upon the other side it is argued that the very fact ‘thal the Government has this immense sum of sav- | ings in the postal banks to borrow from enables it to float its loans as cheaply as it does, and therefore | that the bank is worth to the Government all that it | cest last year to maintain it. Furthermore, it is ar- gued it is the duty of the Government to promote | the welfare of the people by encouraging thrift as the | postal bank does. Finally it is said that since the | Government imposes taxes for the purpose of grant- | ing bounties for mail service or subsidies for ship- building and in other ways aids the enterprises of | capital, it is no more than right that taxation should | be resorted to if necessary to uphold the savings in- stitutions of workingmen and provide them with a ir interest upon their deposits. The issue, it will be seen, is one of the most inter-’ esting of the financial problems of our time when con- | sidered from the point of view of sociology. it is bad economy for a Government to maintain a postal bank system upon which it loses $250,000 that it has to make up by taxation. On the other hand | it is certainly an advantage for a Government to have $750,000,000 offered by its workingmen at such low rates of interest, and it is also of advantage to pro- vide workingmen with a means of investing their sav- ings without risk of losing them through bank fail- ures or speculations. The discussion in Parliament will enlighten us how to act when the time comes for entering upon the establishment of postal banks in | this country, and for that reason the subject is worthy | | of general attention. RUSSIA PLAYS @ LONE HAND. EPORTS to the effect that Russia has “warned” R the United States not to interfere in China be- yond protecting United States citizens may be dismissed as emanations of the yellow. Nothing has heen done by our Government or by our citizens to justify Russia in giving any advice as to what we shall do or leave undone, and any such thing as a “warning” would be an impertinence which no diplo- | matist in Russia or elsewhere is likely to venture upon in dealing with the United States. There remains, however, the fact that Russia is ap- parently playing a lone hand in China and has plans which her officers are not willing to subject to the action of an international council. That much is made evident by Admiral Kempff's dispatch of Friday, in which, after stating rhat he had landed forces to pro- | tect American interests and had sent men to Peking and Tientsin, that British, Russian and Chinese ad- mirals and twenty warships representing the nations were in the harbor, he went on to say: “On June 5 the situation was most critical. The Russian force began fighting. On June 6 the Tientsin-Peking railway was cut. Will act in concert with naval forces of other powers to protect interests if necessary. A meeting of foreign senior naval officers was held to-day. Present: English, French, German, Austrian, Italian, Japanese and American officers. Will arrange for combined action to protect life and property.” The statement in the dispatch that the Russian admiral was present in the harbor, that the Russians had begun fighting, taken in connection with the | omission of the name of any Russian as being pres- | ent at the conference of naval officers, looks ominous. Why the Russian admiral should not have acted in concert with the others can hardly be explained upon any ground other than an intention on his part to have a free hand to act as he will, no matter what others may do. How far it will be to our interests to permit the exercise of that free hand on the part of the Czar remains to be seen. e e — By order of the Police Commission pensioned pa- trolmen are to be examined, and if found fit are to be compelled to return tp duty. While the plan is com- mendable, the commijesion might also devote a little time in finding those members of the force who ap- pear to be too strong to work. » e et e The Fire Commissioners have been accused of act- ing in collusion,with a contractor in awarding him the city horse-shoeing for a year. The Commissioners will probably assert their rights and insist that this | time at least the ‘hoe is on the right foot. | Clearly | HE many friends of Robert Taber will be sorry to hear that he has been playing Marcus Vinicius in the Lon- don version of “Quo Vadis.” That is a sad com.c-down for an artist of Mr. Taber's standing, and it is sin- cerely to be hoped that the pressure of necessity—it must - have been a dire one—which drove him to such slavery will soon be relieved, allowing him to reserve his fine talent for that work for which he is so eminently fitted—the por- trayal of poetic and romantic characters. I count it among the blessings of my life that I have steadily resisted all entreaties to read “Robert Elsmere” and that I could not be induced to see ‘‘Quo Vadis.” For this latter mercy I am indebted to the friendly warnings of a much-berated class—the critics. They saved me, as I humbly trust that I on similar occasions have saved others. I have been waiting for an authoritative judg- ment on this detestable play from the man most competent to give it, and here I find it in the London World of May 16: # * * “The brutalities of the play are not so crude and pal- pable as those of the ‘Sign of the Cross.’" In the main, how- ever, there is very little to choose between the two productions, and some passages of ‘Quo Vadis' are positively unrivaled in point of childish absurdity. . . . . . . The June Century contains a beautiful picture of the grave of Edwin Booth, with the following quatrain by Thomas Balley Aldrich: In narrow space, with Booth, lie housed in death Iagn. Hamlet, Shylock, Lear, Macbeth. If still they seém to walk the painted scene, 'Tis but the ghosts of those that once have been. This is 4s true historically as poetically. We have to-day but two actors on the American stage who can give what may | be called a fairly adequate representation of a great Shake- | spearean part—Mr. James and Mr. Mansfield. The former ex- cels in only one part, Othello; the latter has never, I think, at- L.pU PONT The interior of our playhouses Mr. Archer finds better tham the exterior: indeed, it seems to me he hardly does justice in this respect to their superiority over the English. The pit, that odious survival from days of cock-figh nd bear-baiting, 1s fortunately unknown among us, while it has by no means dis- appeared in England. The interior decc n, too, all that gives cheerfulness and “atmosphere” to an auditorium, is bet- ter understood, it seems to me, in New York than in London. When Mr. Archer projected his plan for a visit to the thea- ters of America some cultivated Americans, he tells us, asked him, “What came you out into the wildern His reply was, “I came to look into the future of the English drama.” That is a lovely thing for him to sa is also his remark about our public “advancing by leaps and bounds in culture and taste.” Lovely things to sa indeed, but a ! far, 1 fear, from the truth. If we swallow them we shall fi y like unto the little book commanded by the angel to be eaten of St. John: *“And I took the little book out of the hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet a and as soon as I had eaten it my stomach was bitter the time when the center of literary activity shall move from London to New York is, if we may judge by historical analo- gles, so remote 28 to have no practical interest for us, and as to culture “advancing by leaps and bounds"—not only is culture not doing that among us but it has never done that among any people. Culture, “the best that is thought and known in the world,” is a plant of slow growth. To use a Tennysonian metaphor, even where nature has planted fifty seeds thereof, she often brings but one to life, choking out the other forty- nine by means of the weeds of passion and materialism. With the plaint that lays at the door of Charles Frohman the responsibility for the sickly condition of our drama Mr. Archer cannot sympathize. “It is the public,” he says, “not Mr. Frohman, that is to blame. So long as the public fails to discriminate between native and foreign work no manager, whatever his race or creed, can afford to constitute himself the to se. tempted anything but Richard IIL . . . . . “ Mr. Archer’'s others see us. the hideous presses him first. exterior in Paris and the Ring Theater in Vienna, Opera-house in New York must appear as nothing better than a yellow brick fact truthfully be recent articles on “The American Stage” (Pall Mall Magazine) afford us a rare chance to see ourselves as The most obviously ugly fact about that stage— of our average theater—natura To one who has seen the Grand Opera-house aid that of the forty odd playhouses in New York only two—the American Theater on Forty-second street and the Madison-square Garden—show the faintest conception of what a theater extericr should be like. better off in this respect than New York. with us, one and the same roof extends its shelter over saloon (Anglice gin palace) and theater, an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual disesteem which places poor Thalia and Melpomene at the bottom of the Muse's social scale. . Archer has in: drama. im- iy constantly presented, the Metropolitan it did to Mr. Archer— ory. Indeed, it may public. cheerfully to sustain United States he has Mr. English. True, London is no There too often, as | amour” to what is really at opinion. Maecenas of the native playwright.”” tunately true, and in the use dicated the best hope for 1t is quite absurd to expect people to discriminate be- tween good and bad so long as they do not know and what is bad; this they can learn only by means financial loss during the period it takes to educate 3 The time cries out for a millionaire who is willl Archer considers American Against the matinee girl he brings the he: of being responsible for the success of su as Zamfmd such a Catherine. At thd conclusion of his article he harks b The true provincialism, he jus which _is content to leave America a province of F New York a suburb of Paris. That is, of couse, unfor- the word “Maecenas™ Mr. the future of our of at is good seeing the good and to present this good in proper this loss. If there is one such man | not yet answered the ery, acting quite as good as avy charge h a “vulg violent tawdry sentiment as iece of ck agaln the bottom of the whole question—public y declares, is that e and L. DU PONT SYLE. 0900000009 O * x A T AT AT AT R Tk TR T Rk R AR T A Sk § < OUR PHILIPPINE ACQUISITIONS : BO00000BOBO * K H AT HTAT AT AT AT AT A TATATATH AT 2009000000 DITOR The Call: The frequency - with which the Louisiana purchase is referred to as a precedent for the acquisition of the Philippines shows an amazing ignorance in our own people of the political history of the coun- try. Political orators cite with frequent | flippancy that act on the part of the Gov- ernment as early establishing the princi- ple of expansion, while the student of American history must inevitably arrive at a contrary conclusion. Much of inac- curacy is forgiven by the people and cred- ited to the effervescence of enthusiasm when listening to an exposition of so- called political principles by perfervid lo- cal statesmen, but when the President of the United States refers to the Louisiana purchase as a justitication for the recent | acts of expansion many of his most fer- vent admirers fear that a man so well grounded in political information ap- proaches much nearer the line of politcal dishonesty than is creditable to one oc- cupying so exalted a position. The mess we are In with reference to the Philippines is bad enough without en- deavoring to deceive ourselves by disin- genuous statements and misrepresenta- tion of facts. Even the ordinary reader of the public press and the listener to pub- lic speeches soon becomes impressed with how little is known of what the Louisiana purchase really consisted and the causes which led up to that treaty with France in 1803. As far back as 17% Washington and the great founders of the republic who surrounded him were looking with grave and serfous apprehension toward the mouth of the Mississippi as a danger point. The hardy sons of the Revolution with rifle in hand were pouring into the great Northwestern Territory, Kentucky and Tennessee. Steam power was un- known and rallroads undreamed of. The commerce of the world was under sail, and an outlet to the ocean imperative. The products of the Mississippi and jts great tributaries must float unvexed to the sea, and the mouth of that river must be free. Spain held New Orleans and all that pathless wilderness and those vast arid wastes which were afterward known as the Louisiana purchase. Already com- plications were arising, mutterings and threats were heard, and It was well known that the first cause of serious irritation would send forth a fierce flame, and those hardy sons of the West, ever too ready to grasp their only known weapons of de- fense, would precipitate an armed con- flict with any power interfering with their free entrance to the ocean, and that the then youthful Government would be ab- solutely ywerless to control their actions. Lines of communication were scarcely more than paths through trackless for- ests, and the Government might become involved in war half fought out before a declaration had been made by either party and the conflict continue long after terms of settlement had been reached. To avert this threatened danger New Orleans was made bl agreement a port of deposit for of three years—a mere makeshift —a modus vivendi. In 1500 Spain ceded all its rights to France, which fact was, however, un- known in this country until the followi) ear. Jefferson was then President, .5'.5 ivingston the Minister to Paris. A con- tinental war was imminent, and Living- ston was instructed to sound Napoleon, then First Consul, with reference to the purchase of New Orleans. Upon heari of the cession to France on April 18, n’o'f Jefferson wrote to Livingston: “We have ever looked to France as our natural friend, one with whom we could never have an occasion of difference, but there s one spot on the globe, the pos- sessor of which is our natural enemy— that spot is New Orleans. Frai erself in that door, Askumes 16 e thG attitude of defiance. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fle‘g‘t and naum;x." onroe was bastened abroad as E: Extraordinary, to assist in the negoiia. tions. Mabois, acting for the Fis - sul in place of T-Il:yrlnd, :unre:tt.egmtlu Liv on a purchase by the United States of all of the rights of twenty millions of dollare, 'l‘?e‘ ‘:cn:é:: of the American representative was an emphatic no—expansion was not thought of—all his Government wanted was N Orleans, and a free entry to the sea. However, upon the arrival of Monroe with his broader and more comprenensive :llm and f::l-e‘r I{afgm-tlon. the negotia- ons were n taken up upon the basis of Mabois' suggestions and :3 Brampt, Tched o s e e sale of al is for eighty millions of francs. was prem E more than the ceded territery shoul tw provided that all the inhabitants A d become in- | corporated into the United States with | all the rights and privileges of citizenship. At that time the people occupying the ceded territory probably did not number one for each hundred squaremiles, and the | treaty was simply a stupendousreal estate { deal.” What few inhabitants there were were comprised of French and Spanish, | living thousands of miles from the pro- | tecting influence of their Government and | surrounded by Lordes of bloody savages | over which there existed no sovereignty l'even in name. All this territory lay con- | tiguous to the United States and extend- | ing westward from the Mississippl to a | point where the waters would flow into | the Pacific and from Canada to the gulf and Rio C e, | fined and in dispute, including the mouth | of the Mississippi, which river was the | very lifeblood of the commerce of it and all its tributaries. A waYt with the then | greatest military power on earth was al- | | most inevitable, a wilderness with prac- | 3t with boundaries unde- tically no population, but all a_territory | which by American people could be turned into a prosperous and productive part of | our own country. The mouth of the Mississippi in the pos- session of a foreign power was a stand- ing menace and a °perpetual threa(.‘ Among the causes that prompted that purchase the idea of expansion had no | place or influence, nor was it even for be within the ex- | a : oment claimed to pre. -~ constitutional powers of the Pres- | ident and Senate to make such purchase, and but few of those who most severely | criticized the constitutional right of the Government to make the acquisition ever | for a moment questioned the policy and necessity of the same. It was an act done not only for the conservation of the best interests of our own people but was one within the inherent powers of any government to protect itself. and may well be considered the exercise of a war power, a power which is exercised by all nations. Around each inhabitant of the | ceded territory by a treaty, the most sol- emn obligations known to civilized gov- ernments, we tucked the mantle of the constitution and clothed him with every right of American citizenship. Out of that purchase we carved great States, which are now filled with millions of in- telligent and prosperous American peo- ple, the combined wealth of whose com- merce and agricultureillimitably surpasses the wealth of the entire thirteen colonies | when they first defied the power of Eng- land and “created the American flag. No one, however rich in romance or however great a utopian dreamer, could conceive of men with statesmanship sufficiently wise, broad and comprehensive to have averted a war between the United States and any foreign power which might have held the mouth of the Mississippi for the first third of the nineteenth century. To insure the development of that vasi coun- try so rich in resources, washed by the Mississippl and its tributaries, an outlet to the sea was an absolute and impera. tive necessity, and it was a statesman- ship which actomplished that result, per- meated by no selfish motive of expansion, n.ng which was sufficiently farseeing to avert threatened war with any power that might in any wise interfere with an un- trammeled outlet to the sea. How ca these motives and all the conditions and circumstances surrounding that treaty be even suggested as a precedent for the ac- quisition of the Philippines? It is true we were at war with Spain— right or wrong—but we had the solemn declaration of the American Congress that the war was not undertaken for the purpose of conquest, but solely for hu- manity. By an accident, an American anish ships'in the bay of Manila, over which, together with the surrounding islands, Spain had held a nominal sovereignty for 300 years, and most of that time in armed conflict with the people. We were at war with Spain, not with "her rebellious subjects who claimed the right of self-government in accordance with their own ideas; but the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Philip- pine waters surely gave us no right to continue the crusade against those peo- | We ple, who might well be considered our allies, rather than our enemies, and after having driven the fox away we certainly had no right to rob the roost. Prohhg not § &e‘r cent of the American pecple prior ‘to 1, 1898, would have n able to find the Philippine Island: upon a map of the world. Seven thomns miles from our shores, across stormy and Ple OF Orientay Faces, and with whom®she e of races, and with whom t! lood of the Auulo—?un never did and never will co le who in centuries would not understand the u:gu ‘whom S sn:imnqu. b has. & vig- e American or years m‘"‘& and rigorously lmtc’d to pre- vent their entering our and it is now claimed that the acquisition of that country and of those mpl- and_under Ay - American as a prece- ] a fleet belonging to their enemy and ours in their waters imposed no such obligation upcn us. Even the boldest supporter of the policy of expansion will not_suggest that we are to ma of the Filipinos American citizens, with all the rights and privileges of Américan citizenship. Be- fore the words of a politiclan that would advance such a doctrine had died upon the circumambient air he would find his political neck dislocated. We have ac- quired a country so far away that from our nearest shores it takes thirty days by steam to reach it. We have acquired tha obligation to maintain large standin armies, with all its concomitant evils, and in direct violation of the fundamental principles of this Government. We have acquired a guerrilla warfare that will leave thousands of bright and brave Americans sleeping their last sieep in the swamps and amid the rice flelds of that tropic_clime. and making physical and mental wrecks of still other thousand have already accumulated a large supply of political scandals. We are ex- ercising government without the consent of the governed and are trampling under foot every tradition of the American re- public, and for what? The right to gov- ern aix alien race and to speculate upon the products of their labor. By the one treaty we were conserving the interests of our own people, building ur a country where Peaco. happiness, plenty and profit would reign supreme. where the domain acquired would add power and prestige to the integrity of the nation. On the other hand, we are simply involving ourselves in the complications which will inevitably arise in the Orient, adding millions to the expense of our treasury, increasing our list of dead, fill- ing our pension rolls and leaving to suec- ceeding generations unsolved problems to strain and wrench the very foundation timbers of the republic. No nation can write its political prineiples in lurid 1t of power and pelf and hope to avert t retributive justice of an avenging God. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. EDWIN H. LAMNE. Los Angeles, Cal., June 6. 1900. PERSONAL MENTION. W. H. Atkinson, a wealthy rancher from Nevada, 1s at the Grand. Congressman S. A. Barham is a guest at the Grand. Dr. C. Narren and wife of Sacramento are guests at the Lick. J. R. Garnett, a merchant of Willows, i8 at the Lick with his wife, Arthur W. Livingston, an attorney of Stockton, is at the Palace. George A. Denis, a prominent citizen of Los Angeles, is at the Palace. George A. Buffum, a well-known mer- chant of St. Louls, is at the Palace. B. U. Steinman, ex-Mayor of Sacramen- to and a capitalist of that city, is at the Palace. Assistant Manager J. J. Fleming of the Lick House left yesterday for a two weeks’ outing at Bartlett Springs, Rear Admiral and Mrs. Beardslee leave this morning for Victoria, to be absent from the city for about a fortnight. F. W. Schmidt and C. Schmidt of As- toria, who make a specialty of sturgeon fishing and the frozen fish business, ars Buests at the Palace. G. E. Sylvester, a wholesale grocer of Seattle, is In this city on a business trip. Mr. Sylvester is an old-time telegraph operator and is now enjoying himself by looking up his old comrades of the key. Charles Mannion of 1055 Mission street left last evening for his old home In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, where he goes to settle up his father's estate. His many friends gave him a farewell banquet at a downtown rotisserie the night befors he departed. He will be absent about two months. 2 ————— CALIFORNIANS IN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, June 9.—Mrs. M. K. Faulkers and Miss Mae Faulkers of San Francisco are at the Metropolitan: A. Rosenow and wife and W. H. Melville of San Francisco are at the Raleigh: P. Ja- nas and family of Los Angeles are at the St. James. by ® —_—— Cal. glace fruit 50c per 1 at Townsend's.* —_——— Special information supplled dally * business houses and public "m: Press Bureau (Allen's), 510 it gomery ‘Telephone Main > —_———— schools cost about 000 anni .lldthlhmmgimm money raised by taxes in the Staie