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Show j Mine of imperialism : I if$f of Blood mi dolsl : : X Bishop Spalding's Scathing Denunciation of Conquest X and Imperialism The Mother of Inhumanity. X The Anti-Imperialist league of New York has published from Bishop Spaldins new book entitled "Opportunity," "Oppor-tunity," the chapter on "What patriotism patriot-ism demands," which Is an eloquent I and convincing protest against the policy. We quote from Bishop Spalding: "We have sympathized with all oppressed op-pressed peoples with Ireland, Greece, Armenia, Cuba. To emancipate the slave we gladly sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers. And now the American soldier, who should never shoulder a gun except in a righteous cause, is sent 10,000 miles across the ocean to shoot men whose real crime is that they wish to be free, wish to govern themselves. v," "To say that they are unfit for freedom free-dom is to put forth the plea of the tyrant in all ages and everywhere. The enemies of liberty have never lacked for pretexts to justify their wrongs; but, in truth, at the root of all wars of conquest there lies lust for blood or for gold. "If the inhabitants of the Philip pines came gladly to throw themselves into our arms, we should refuse to do more than counsel, guide and protect them until they form themselves into a stable and independent government. What then is to be thought of those who seem resolved either to rule or to exterminate them, believing probably that the only good Filipino is a dead Filipino? ' "The argument that our policy has from the beginning been one of expansion expan-sion has no application in the present crisis. By the treaty of 1783 the Mis- sissippi river was recognized as the western boundary of the United States; but when in 1S02 the Spanish civil officers of-ficers whom France, having recovered Louisiana, left in ccnmand, issued a proclamation closing the Mississippi to American commerce, it at once became manifest that we could not leave the mouth-of the great river, which flowed for. more than 1,000 miles through our territory in the possession of a foreign for-eign pbwer. Thomas Jefferson, therefore, there-fore, acted in the spirit of a patriot and ! a statesman when, taking advantage ' of the- embarrassments .of Bonaparte, he purchased the whole region lying west of the Mississippi and not already occupied by Soain. "Here was a natural development, the gaining possession of vast tracts of unsettled lands, which if not peopled by American citizens, would become the home of a powerful rival state, and this would involve wars, standing armies and the jeopardy of free institutions. insti-tutions. Similar reasons justified the purchase of Florida in 1819. When, in 1843, we annexed the republic of Texas, we did what the Texans themselves wished us to do. Disputes concerning the western boundary of Texas led to the war with Mexico, which, at the close of the war sold to the United States New Mexico and upper California, Califor-nia, including Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona and parts of Colorado. These countries were scarcely inhabited. inhab-ited. Upper California contained not more than 15,000 people. In. this whole course of expansion we followed the line of natural development. We entered upon the possession cf waste regions which were geographically geographical-ly part of, our country, and which we were certain to fill with population similar sim-ilar to those occupying the states already al-ready founded. To carry out this work there could be no need of a standing army or a powerful" navy: none of making mak-ing war to conquer and hold in subjection subjec-tion races which, being altogether unlike un-like ourselves, claimed the right, in the establishment of a government, to be sruided by their own ideas and traditions. tradi-tions. In purchasing these territories, it may be said that we bought land and not human beings land that was part of our inheritance. But now, following the lead of our great capitalists and trust lords, we buy at one stroke ten million human beings; beings who live in another hemisphere, who differ from us in every way, who dwell in. a climate cli-mate which is fatal to the white man, who can be of no advantage whatever to tis, but who, if we persist in holding them, will Involve us in the most serious se-rious difficulties and dangers. A war of conquest is in contradiction with our fundamental principles of government; it is opposed to all our tradition. The thought of ruling over subject peoples is repugnant to our deepest and noblest sentiments. It is part of our good fortune, of our providential position posi-tion and mission in the world, that our country is vast enough and self-sufficient enough to make all desire for conquest con-quest an unholy and meaningless temptation. temp-tation. We have room for three or four hundred millions of human beings. If more are required, and we are true ! to ourselves, iintisn America win come to us without there being need of firing a gun. We have money enough already and our wealth is increasing rapidly. What we have to learn is how to live, how to distribute our money, how to take form it its mastery over us and make it our servant." Commercial and manufacturing competition com-petition is becoming a struggle for existence ex-istence fiercer than that which makes nature red with rivin in tooth and claw. Whereas the tendency of true civilization and religion is to convert the struggle for life into co-operation for life, into work of all for all,, that all may have those Inner goods which make men wise, holy, beautiful and strong whereas, this is the tendency of right civilization, our greed, our superstitious super-stitious belief in money as the only true oGd and Savious of men, hurries us on with increasing speed into all the venalities, ve-nalities, dishonesties and corruptions, into all the tricks and trusts by which the reorIe Are disheartened and impoverished. im-poverished. We are hypnotized by the glitter and glare, the pomp and circumstance of wealth, and are becoming incapable of a rational view of life. We have lost taste' for simple things and simple ways. We flee from the country as from a desert, and find self-forgetful-ness only amid the noise and .rush of great cities, where high thought and pure affection are well-nigh impossible. impossi-ble. How far we have drifted from that race of farmers who threw off the yoke of England and built the noble state; who believed that honor was better than money, feedom than luxury, lux-ury, and display! Their plain demo cratic Republic is no longer good enough for us. We are becoming imperial. We must have mighty armies, and navies which shall encircle earth, to b.-in into subjection wfolc and unprotected savages sav-ages and barbarians. We are the victims of commercialism: commercial-ism: we have caught tho contagion of the insanity that the richesf nations are the worthiest and most enduring. We have lost sight of the eternal principles prin-ciples that all freedom is enrooted in moral freedom, that riches are akin to fear and death, that by the soul only can a nation be great. If we but have the" Courage to look steadfastly and to see things as they are, we shall easily perceive that our true work lies here, and not ten thou- f" sand miles away. We are the foremost I bearers of the most precious treasures I of the race. In the success of the experiment ex-periment which we are making the hopes of all noble and generous souls I for a higher life of mankind are centered. cen-tered. If we fail, the world fails: if we succeed we shall do more for tho good of all men than if we conquered all the islands and continents. Our I mission is to show tha.t popular government gov-ernment on a vast scale ia compatible with the best culture, the purest religion, re-ligion, the highest justice, and that It can permanently endure. In comparison compari-son with this what would be a thousand thou-sand groups of Philippines? What tha most brilliant career of imperial pomp and glory? |