ff
* f
Cohecirvatiw ,
"I.KST WK FOHGKT. "
[ Dnvid Starr Jordan in a speech before the
graduating clafeH of Leland Stanford .Tr. Uni-
vormty on May 2o , 1898. ]
Our government must bo changed for
our changing needs. Wo must give up
the chocks nnd balances in our constitu
tion. It is said that our great battleship
Oregon can turn about end for end
within her own length. The dominant
nation must have the same power. She
must be capable of reversing her action
in a minute , of turning around within
her own length. This "our prate of
statute and of state" makes impossible.
We shall receive many hard knocks be
fore we reach this condition , but we
must reach it if we are to "work might
ily" in the affairs of the world. If we
are to deal with crises in foreign ail'airs
we must hold them with a steadier grasp
than that with which we have held the
Cuban question. Wo cannot move ac
curately and quicldy under the joint
leadership of a conservative and steady-
headed president , a hysterical or venal
senate and a house intent upon its own
re-election. That kind of checks and
balances wo must lay aside forever. As
matters ore now , president , senate and
house check each other's movements
and the state falls over its own feet.
The government of the United States
is the expression of the transient will of
the people , so hemmed in by chocks and
balances that positive action is difficult
whatever the will of the majority for
the moment may be. This is the gov
ernment for peace and self-defense , but
not for aggression. The government of
England expresses the permanent will
of the intelligent people with such
checks as shut out ignorance and con
trol incompetence. The nation and not
the individual man is the unit in its
actions.
Towards the English system we must
approach more and more closely if we
are to deal with foreign affairs in largo
fashion. The town-meeting idea must
give way. to centralization of power.
Wo must look away from our own af
fairs , neglect thorn , if you please , until
the pressure of growing expenditure
forces us to attend to thorn again , anc
to attend to them more carefully than
we over yet have douo. Good govern
ment at homo must precede good gov
ernment of dependencies. One reason
England is governed well is that misgovernment -
government anywhere on any large
scale would be fatal to her credit anc
fatal to her power. She must call her
best men to her political service , be
cause without them she would perish.
It may be that the choice of imperial
ism is already made. If so , wo shal
learn the lesson of dominion in the hard
est school of experience. That wo shal
ultimately learn it I have no doubt , for
ours is a nation of apt scholars. We
shall hold our own in war and diplo
macy , we shall tie the hands of turbu
*
out nations and seize the assets of bank-
apt ones , and wo shall teach the art of
nonoy-making to the dependent nations
vho shall be our wards and slaves.
Some great changes in our system are
novitablo , and belong to the course of
mtural progress. Against thorn I have
lothing to say. Whatever our part in
; ho affairs of the world wo should play
t manfully. But with all this I believe
ihat the movement towards broad do-
ninion so eloquently outlined by Mr.
Olnoy , would be a step downward. It
would be to turn from our highest pur-
) oses to drift with the current of mani-
: est destiny. It would bo not to do the
work of America , but to follow the ways
of the rest of the world. I make no pica
'or indifference isolation
or self-sufficiency or
elation for isolation's sake. To shirk
from world-movements or to drift with
the current is silike unworthy of our ori
gin and destiny. Only this I urge : let
our choice be made with open eyes , not
at the dictates of chance disguised as
"manifest destiny. " Unforgetting ,
open-eyed , counting all the cost , let us
make our decision. Let ours be sober ,
fearless , prayerful choice. The federal
republic the imperial republic which
shall it be ?
There are three main reasons for op
posing every stop toward imperialism.
First , dominion is brute force ; second ,
dependent nations are slave nations ;
third , the making of men is greater than
the building of empires.
As to the first of these : the extension
of dominion rests on the strength of
arms. Men who cannot hold town
meetings must obey through brute
force. In Alaska , for example , oui
occupation is a farce and scandal.
Only force can make it otherwise. Only
by force can the masses of Hawaii or
Cuba bo held to industry and order. To
furnish such power , we shall need a co
lonial bureau , with its force of extra-
natioual police. A large army and navy
must justify itself by doing something.
Army and navy wo must maintain for
our own defence , but beyond that they
can do little that does not hurt , and they
must bo used if they would be kep
alivo. Even warfare for humanity
falls to the level of other wars , and al
wars , according to Benjamin Franklin
are bad , some worse than others. The
rescue of the oppressed is only accom
phshed by the use of force against the
oppressor. The lofty purposes of hu
inanity are forgotten in the joy of strug
gle and the pride of conquest.
The other reasons concern the integ
rity of the republic itself. This was the
lesson of slavery , that no republic cai
"endure , half slave and half free. " The
republics of antiquity fell because they
were republics of the few only , for eac ]
citizen rested on the backs of uin
slaves. A republic cannot bo an oligarchy
garchy as well. The slaves destroy the
republic. Whenever we have inferio
and dependent races within our borders
oday , wo have a political problem
'tho Negro problem , " "tho Chinese
n-oblom , " "tho Indian problem. "
? heso problems wo slowly solve. In-
Lustrial training and industrial pride
mike a man of the negro. Industrial
nterest may oven make a man of the
Chinaman , and the Indian disappears as
our civilization touches him.
But in the tropics such problems are
) orennial and insoluble. Cuba , Ma
nia , Nicaragua will bo slave territories
for centuries to como. These people in
such a climate can never have self gov
ernment in the Anglo-Saxon sense.
Whatever form of control wo adopt , wo
shall be in fact slave-drivers , and the
business of slave-driving will react upon
us. Slavery itself was a disease which
came to us from the British West In
dies. It broods in the tropics like yellow
fever and leprosy. Can even an imper
ial republic lost , part slave , part free ?
But England endures , and her control
of slave territories is her "doom and
pride. " What then of British imperial
ism ? From the standpoint of imperial
ism England is an oligarchy , not a re
public. Her government is not self-rule ,
but the direction of commerce. It is
admiralty rather than democracy.
Americans govern themselves. English
men are ruled by the government of
their own choosing. Englishmen gov
ern themselves in municipal affairs , and
in ways from which wo have much to
learn. In foreign affairs their huge gov
ernmental machine , backed by the mo
mentum of tradition , is all-powerful.
This rules Ireland , India , Gibraltar ,
Egypt , all England's dependencies and
wards. The other colonies are republics
in fact. Canada , New Zealand , the
states of Australia these are republics
bound to keep the peace with the
mother country , but in no other way
controlled by her. Only ties of senti
ment bind Canada to England. In all
practical matters , she is one of the
United States.
The stronger the governmental ma
chine , and the more adjustable its pow
ers , the better the government. But
government is not the main business of
a republic. If good government were
all , democracy would not deserve half
the effort that is spent upon it. For the
function of democracy is not to make
government good. It is to make men
strong. Bettor government than any
republic has yet enjoyed could bo had
in simpler and cheaper ways. The auto
matic scheme of competitive examina
tion would give us bettor service at half
the present cost. Even an ordinary
intelligence office , or statoman's em
ployment bureau would serve us better
than conventions and elections. Gov
ernment too good as well as too bad
may have a baneful influence on men.
The purpose of self-government is to in
tensify individual responsibility , to pro
mote attempts at .wisdom , through
which true wisdom may como at last.