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Show IMPERIALISM AND MAN'S LABOR. LA-BOR. BY BOURKE COCKRAN. Imperialism has come to be a word of great significance, and I am asked to state concisely and exactly what it means for American labor. I cannot do better than refer to a speech which I delivered to the students of the University Uni-versity of Michigan in February, 1S99, before imperialism had become, as it is today, the dominant issaue of our politics, and the gravest danger, in my judgment, that has ever threatened our republican form of government. As I said then, it is necessary to distinguish dis-tinguish between "expansion" and '"imperialism." Expansion has always signified the extension of our institutions institu-tions through the enlargement of our frontiers. Imenerialism is not the riff. fusion of American constitutionalism over new lands, but the establishment in conquered territory by this government govern-ment of another government, radically irreconcilable to the spirit of our own constitution and essentially hostile to it. Expansion, then, may be defined as the peaceful development of our political po-litical system through an increase, in the area of the United States, and imperialism im-perialism as the forcible exercise by our government in other countries of powers denied to it at home. The marvelous growth of commerce between the states of the Union is due to its absolute freedom from artificial restriction. The inclusion of Canada in this free trade would stimulate production beyond our powers to conceive. con-ceive. Exactly opposite results would be produced by imperialistic conquest. The forcible annexation of Canada would be an act of imperialism, as unprofitable as it woulLbe unjustifiable, and as calamitous ca-lamitous as it would be criminal. A conquered country is always discontented, dis-contented, and therefore disloyal. It would be impossible to intrust the rights of statehood to a disaffected people. peo-ple. Our authority over them could be maintained only by force, that is to say, by a standing army and military rule. Aside from its inherent hostility to free institutions, a standing army is a crushing burden on the neck of the laborer. The first essential of high wages is abundance of commodities, and a standing army is an insuperable obstacle ob-stacle to extensive production. Every dollar of surplus product or capital invested in-vested in implements, in machinery in buildings, is a fruitful dollar. Commodities Com-modities used in production multiply themselves even while they perish Every dollar expended for munitions of war is a sterile dollar. It is not used for the purpose of production, but for the purpose of destruction. It is wast ed as completely as if it were thrown Into the sea. ' " ': I oppose this novel, un-American policy pol-icy of imperialism because the grounds on which its advocates support "it are peurile, inconsistent and dishonest; because be-cause it Involves the existence of a standing army to menace liberty and to oppress labor by diminishing wages; because" it is cowardly to invade the rights of .the-weak while respecting those of the strong; because it would divorce the American flag and, the American constitution by sending the one where the other cannot go; because be-cause it is a policy of inconceivable folly from a material point of view. I favor the traditional American policy pol-icy of expansion because I want this republic to continue in the path which leads to higher achievements of peace and progress; because I want this country 'to remain the land where the patriotic workman who produces is more honored than the paid fighting man who destroys, where the laborer's overalls enjoy equal dignity with the soldier's uniform, where a dinner-pail is more highly esteemed than a knapsack, knap-sack, where a spade is deemed more valuable than a musket, a hospital than a battery, a school than a fortress; where the enduring glory of justice is pursued and the vainglory of conquest despised; where the flag which typifies liberty and the constitution which secures se-cures it, enshrined in the hearts, sus tained by the arms, glorified by the memories of a free people, shall remain Invincible, indestructible, inseparable, forever and forever. |