upon an assumption of alliance or aid from British. or any other power, nor depend upon other than our own strong right arm-which is very weak, indeed, to-day, but must be made strong if we become an Eastern power and wish to protect ourselves.

It is well for the United States to appreciate its unrivaled position as long as she remains solid, compact, and without far-distant possessions liable to attack which she would consider herself in honor bound to repel. To-day, suppose all the naval powers combined against her, how trifling the injury they could. inflict. Only the fringe of our country would feel it; the ports upon the sea. The nation as a whole would be untouched. Even the ports and the harbors are easily rendered impregnable by mines and torpedoes, and, in extreme cases, by closing the channels. The recent war has shown that naval attack upon fortifications is not effective.

We should have no exports for a time, but the annual domestic exchange of the people is not estimated by any one at less than fifty thousand millions of dollars; those of exports and imports have never yet reached quite two thousand millions-only about four per cent of the domestic. The annual increase of domestic exchanges is estimated to be just about equal to the total of all our foreign trade, imports i and exports combined. No great and general suffering could ensue from their stoppage for a time during war. Some labor would be displaced, but the greater call for volunteers for garrison duty and to supply the abnormal demands always caused by war would require more labor. The number of volunteers taken from the ranks of labor at present causes a scarcity of men, especially throughout the Northwestern States.

The national wealth would not increase so rapidly during the blockade. This is all. No one need suffer for food or clothing or shelter, for all these would be plentifully supplied. No lives would be lost. Through Mexican or Canadian ports, even, every luxury would come to us. Upon our enemies would fall the ruinous expense of naval operations far from their base, and of waste of life. The loss of food products would cause famine and general distress in Europe. In Britain so serious would this become. that, if not a party to the attack, her condition would soon compel her to interfere and end the war.

No glory could come to our assailants; only monotonous waiting, exhausting their powers of mischief, and compelling them to make peace upon our

own terms.

Such is our position so long as we remain compact, absorbing only coterminous territory, upon which Americans will grow. Russia is in precisely the same. condition, strategically considered, and none but she and ourselves can be impregnable.

Such is the old policy, and such the new. The one keeps the Republic the most peaceful, most prosperous, most happy, most highly civilized of all the nations, devoting less and less of her energies to the destructive engines of war, and more and more to the education of her people.

One path-safety, peace, prosperity, civilization, Republicanism; the other-dangers, taxation, sacrifice of life, wars, militarism, imperialism. Can there be any serious doubt as to the choice of the American people?

AGAINST IMPERIALISM.

BY GENERAL J. B. WEAVER.

"No man is good enough to govern another without the other's consent."—Abraham Lincoln.

This postulate, selected from the many wise sayings of one of the greatest emancipators of the world, contains within itself, in indestructible form, the whole problem of rightful human government. It is in such perfect unison with the constitution of man's intellectual, moral and physical being; so in accord with our personal right to think for ourselves and hence our duty to put all virtuous thoughts into action, that we are forced to conclude, from the very correlation of human faculties, that it is the will of our Creator that we shall govern ourselves; and that beyond the selfimposed restraints of orderly association, no human power can rightfully be permitted to intrude upon this inviolable realm of individual kingship. Every faculty of the human soul seems fashioned to impel us, once and forever, to reject the yoke that would prevent the free exercise of this inalienable right. This is in concert with the teachings of the enlightened and · heroic characters who fashioned our own infant republic. It is in harmony with the songs sung around the cradle of our liberties, and so inlaid in the very warp and woof of American character, to say nothing of its perfect agreement with the enlightened and self-imposed limitations against conquest, placed upon

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our commander-in-chief when he was clothed by the Congress with authority to draw the sword, that it seems strangely incredible there should be found a single soul under our flag who would question the applicability of this fundamental truth to any body of people anywhere on this planet. And yet we have a distinguished and honored citizen sitting in the chair of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, who thinks that if he is not good enough, he is at least strong enough, with the aid of an army and modern battleships, to govern 10,000,000 distant and alien people against their consent. And to prove his ability to do so and to defend his position against attack, he has felt compelled to take the lives of thousands of people who were so wicked as to desire to govern themselves and so rash as to attack our own starry flag in the vain hope of securing this priceless boon.

Let there be no mistake here. We do not question the right, nor yet the duty of American soldiers in the Philippines to defend their lives and their flag when attacked. No sane man will question this. They must also obey their officers. And the President, too, must obey his superiors-the Congress, and the people whom they represent.

But in all contentions involving the taking of human life, either in single combat or on the field of battle, the moral sense of mankind must and will enquire whether the taking of life could have been reasonably avoided. And if it could, the verdict of history and the conscience of humanity will hold to strict accountability that man who deliberately and stubbornly refused. to listen to the voice of reason. It is conceded by all rational persons that if an individual, in the pursuit of a lawful purpose, finds himself upon the possessions of another or on disputed ground, he may defend himself if attacked even by the occupant of the in