not in accord with all the declarations of the Kansas City convention, or with his personal views upon public questions. Of the specific planks of the platform some will attract, while others will repel the same individual, so that he is put to his election between the good and the evil which confront him.

The "paramount issue" is declared to be that of imperialism. This centres the fire of the campaign on this subject, and while the theoretical question is much. broader and deeper than any practical application of it, undoubtedly the concrete topic of debate in this connection will be afforded by the Philippines situation. Much misrepresentation and confusion are sure to be bred in this discussion, in which the Democracy is apt to get the worst of the argument in the popular mind, but not so if the real principles which are involved are kept clearly and prominently in view. It is rarely possible to get a temperate, rational, candid popular discussion of political issues. Could this be had the verdict rendered would often be far different from what it is; but torn and confused by exaggerated and partisan appeals to his passions or his prejudices, befogged rather than enlightened, the voter gives the problem up and determines to vote as he has heretofore done, when he might fairly be convinced to the contrary, or he takes some impulsive action which sound second thought does not confirm. Thus

elections are won and lost, and in the approaching contest these tactics, unless met and exposed in a masterful manner, are apt to redound to the advantage of the Republican party.

If the question now under consideration is reduced to the expediency or wisdom of foreign conquest and annexation of distant lands and alien people, in the abstract, or as instanced in the case of the Philippines, either as permanent dependencies or as future states of the Union, the Democratic contention greatly outweighs any that can be offered on the other side. This is not only the Bryan position, but is that of such Democrats as Cleveland, Carlisle and Olney. It is supported by arguments which for good sense and sound logic have certainly not yet been satisfactorily met.

But this naked position is not likely to stand as the point of discussion. Republican orators will endeavor to draw their opponents into a discussion of special aspects of the question, upon which they can appeal with better chances of success to popular favor and applause. Dewey committed no mistake in fighting the battle of Manila Bay, our forces committed no mistake in holding the Islands under subjection to the end of the war, we had the same right to take the Islands and their people under the treaty of Paris as we had to take Louisiana and its people from Napoleon by purchase in 1803, or California and its people from Mexico by treaty at the close of the Mexican war, and we got just as good a title to the Philippines as we did to the country ceded in either of the other If the Republicans can throw the Democrats on the "off" side of these propositions they will gain a great advantage in popular discussions.

cases.

But as to the wisdom of such acquisitions, viewed as permanencies (beyond. such places as are needed for naval stations or commercial depots), as to the necessity for the Filipino war, as to the losses and burdens thereby imposed upon the country, and as to results to which this experience may prove only an introduction, the Democratic position should win favor. The Filipino war might have been averted by a prompt announcement that our intention was the ultimate independence of the Islands, as soon as it could be conceded with credit to ourselves and safety to them; but it is only fair to say that their disposition was not a matter to be determined in a day, and the best settlement of the question was not clear at the time the Paris treaty was entered into. Since the war is on, and until some other adjustment of the case is regularly made, the writer, expressing his own views, believes that there should be no abatement of effort for the establishment of tranquillity and the supremacy of our rule in the Íslands.

Another evasion of the true issue involved will be the general classification of the Philippines annexation with other movements for territorial increase which have been had in the past, and in this

connection Jefferson has been referred to as the father of the doctrine of expansion. This supposed support of the doctrine results from an inability or unwillingness to exercise ordinary discrimination. Jefferson's ideas of expansion were large and commendable, but nothing which ever emanated from him can be stretched so as to include the Philippines. He advocated such expansion as would remove from us the troubles which might result from questionable neighbors or embarrassing entanglements. The Jeffersonian idea has broken the hold of France, Spain and Russia on the North American continent; it has safeguarded our territory, it has taken in tracts of land homogeneous with that which previously belonged to the United States, it has provided homes for hundreds of thousands of home builders, and has in every way strengthened, upreared and solidified our nation. The annexation of Porto Rico (and Cuba, as well) accords with the Jeffersonian idea; the annexation of the Philippines is at utter variance with it. There is an expansion which kills, as well as an expansion which saves, and we should be careful to ascertain upon which we are now proposing to embark.

Upon the underlying principle involved in the "trust" issue there is very little real difference of opinion. Taking into view every consideration which trusts involve, the popular voice readily and accurately pronounces them an evil. Such being the case, the plain question is, how can they be most assuringly suppressed or combatted? There can hardly be room for more than one answer to this question. With very few exceptions every industrial trust in the land has its tap root in the Republican protective tariff system. With the single exception of the infamous ice trust in New York City, every organization of this nature is believed to be in sympathy with the Republican party, and is expected to render it active support in the approaching campaign. The Dingley tariff act has given birth to a pestilential brood of trusts, and more of them have come into existence under the three and a half years of the McKinley administration than the country had known in all its prior history.

Upon this issue our voters have only to ask themselves which party they can best rely upon to antagonize this admitted evil, and determine their action from their own ready response.

Of the important practical questions of the day there only remains that of the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. How this question got such a hold upon the country it is not easy to understand. It undoubtedly has to some extent a fictitious importance, for while many of its advocates are undeniably sincere in their belief as to its efficacy, many others are really indifferent on the subject, while a considerable percentage of the vote counted for it is in reality opposed to the idea, although lending a support on other grounds to the party advocating this issue, and thus giving it to this extent an apparently increased strength, which it does not in fact possess. To a considerable degree it is used as political campaign thunder only, with no purpose of giving it further effect after it has served the immediate end in view.

The writer believes that if a more extended use could safely be made of silver, great good would result, but he is opposed to this idea of free coinage, does not believe in the proposition, and has no idea the country will ever be brought to support it. It has failed to carry the country at large, and it has failed to carry a single state among those which are usually looked upon as determining national elections. Upon this issue victory can never be achieved, and if victory comes at all it must be based upon other grounds and in spite of this handicap. While it seems to be a sort of fetich for conjuring up votes in opposition to the Republican party, it is actually a serious stumbling block in the way of Democratic success. It arouses the strongest antagonism to its advocates, it affords the Republican party the most effective plea to the business interests of the country, and enables it to perpetuate under the protection of this cover greater real offenses against the well-being and well-doing of the country at large than all the fancied wrongs of the gold standard can ever amount to.

What possibility of free coinage there

might be in case of Bryan's election is not clear. It certainly could not come as a result of his election, for the sentiment of the senate, at least, on this issue cannot be changed by one election. It might aid his candidacy in some directions, but it is highly problematical how far it could serve to carry state or congressional elections afterwards. Not improbably it would run its course and disappear, just as "fifty-four forty or fight," ran its course and was heard of no more after it had aided in carrying the country for Polk. This much is certain: Mr. Bryan cannot be elected without the support of men who are opposed to free coinage of silver, and the conservative influence of these men can be counted upon to check any movement radically opposed to their views.

It would hardly be fair to pass without notice one other plank of the Kansas City platform-that endorsing in general terms the Chicago platform of 1896. This is but the echo of a gun which has been fired and will attract but little attention from either side. Voters like live issues, and the questions now rife will absorb their attention to too great a degree to afford room for the consideration of what was exercising popular thought four years ago.

But after all it will not be surprising if the election shall turn upon questions not prominently mentioned in either platform. Should the present Chinese troubles take on the aspect of serious and long-continued war, calling upon the United States for heavy military drafts, it may very well follow that the new issue thus brought into the field will determine who shall be the next president.

Of the personnel of the candidates who head the tickets, perhaps no one believes otherwise of President McKinley than that he is a man of clean life and good intentions, but he is too much in the hands of his friends and the people distrust his friends. His advisers and Cirectors give his party its present complexion, and it is enough to say that he and his party are in every essential particular one. Mr. Bryan to his adherents is fitted with wings, while to his op-. ponents his distinguishing characteristics

are horns and hoofs. Of course neither

picture is correct. He is undoubtedly honest in the convictions which he entertains upon public questions and unflinchingly courageous in upholding them, but upon some of these issues his views are certainly at variance with many of the best thinkers of the country. He has implicit faith in the people, and has has the confidence of his followers in greater degree than any popular leader since Andrew Jackson. His career is a splendid illustration of the possibilities which lie open to any aspiring American citizen, unsupported by wealth or influence. The dark pictures which his opponents are wont to forecast of conditions which may be expected to prevail under his administration, should he be elected, are not without a precedent. The same view was entertained of Jefferson's candidacy by the Federalists of his time, but the country easily survived his election. There was certainly no more halcyon day for the Democracy, and perhaps no more healthful period for the Republic, than during the administration of Andrew Jackson, and yet these gloomy forebodings were equally entertained at that. time. History will but repeat itself should Bryan win the present contest.

Extreme action taken by any party is almost certain to beget re-action, and one of the most assuring things about our scheme of government is an existing elasticity which will permit the play of action and reaction without permanent. injury to the political structure. The reaction against the radical views of the Federalist party evidenced by the election of Jefferson to the presidency was of incalculable value to the country, and so doubtless have been many subsequent changes of political ascendency. There has never in our history been a more imperative demand for a change of policy than now exists, whatever new evils the change may be thought to introduce.

The rapid tendencies of the Republican party today are towards the creation of a large and burdensome standing army, not for the defense of the United States, but for the extension of our jurisisdiction to an unbounded and unknown limit. The annexation of the Philippines is only the first step upon a career of

conquest and accretion, whose end no man living can now foresee. The consequential result of this policy is the abandonment of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, which no true Ameri

can

can view with equanimity. The growth of of the trusts makes it only a matter of time, and brief time at that, before the omnipresent burden of their rapacity and greed will be fastened upon every industry and every avenue of individual advancement which the great and as yet not half developed resources of our country offer. We are moving toward the domination of an oligarchy of collossal corporate interests, the usurpation of the freeman's ballot by the agency which controls his daily bread. Every true interest of the country imperatively demands that a halt be called before further progress has been made. The danger line has been reached. We can now draw away from it, but after a four years' continuance of the present regime return may be impossible.

Recent years have witnessed many political changes, and conditions have

been such that none of us can be justified in sitting in judgment upon the motives which have animated some other. Perhaps we will do well enough if we can see clearly the path of duty which lies before our feet. The writer does not treat the subject from the standpoint of an original Bryan man, or of an advocate of the Chicago platform, nor yet from that of a person to whom party allegiance is superior to civic duty. But we are confronted by issues as momentous as any which have yet engrossed public attention, and we have come to a plain parting of the ways. The one is a continuation of the history of our country as it has heretofore been gloriously written, clouded overhead and rough under foot, it is true, but nevertheless in its ends certain and magnificent; of the other no one can or dares venture a prediction. What choice is there offered to one who has been brought up to believe in the principles of free popular and republican government, as ennunciated by Jefferson and as cherished from his time to these waning days of the nineteenth century?

Among burnt stumps and flame-sered trees,
Or dark and dismal sedges,
Oft to tempt the wandering bees,
Her sweetened breath she pledges.
Across the wild deserted field,

In wind swept pasture growing.
The fireweed lifts her fiery shield,
With long green streamers blowing.
When glows the hills at setting sun,
Which marks the day's declining,
The fireweeds standing one by one,
Like beacon light are shining.
Where drunk with honied breath by night
The bees are hiveward reeling,
The fireweed hides her beaming light
As o're her dusk is stealing.
Though other flowers bloom as fair,
Their sweet perfume bestowing,
No other nolds a heart so rare,
A honied well o're flowing.
No clover white nor orange bloom
Such nectar sweet is yielding,
The fireweed's faintly fragrant plume
O're all her scepter's wielding.

Ella Foreman.

China

The great, unwieldy and venerable Chinese Empire, with its history dating back to the time of the Deluge, and possessing a literature which flourished before the art of printing was known in Europe, has reached a decisive turning point in its history. Its hitherto impregnable walls are falling into dissolution and ruin a spectacle at once pathetic and portentous. The Chinaman has always been in abject ignorance of nations and civilization other than his own. He has plodded his way through the centuries without making any apparent progress, asleep, to all intents and purposes, and satisfied if only he were left alone. A time of awakening, however, was inevitable. This awakening has come partly through the Chinaman. himself, and partly through external influences. The representatives of the Empire have had a taste of travel, and this has afforded them an opportunity for comparison and a desire to better their conditions at home. They have been bewildered by the stupendous commercial genius and activity of the civilized world, and they have seen in this an opportunity and a menace for China. Likewise the great commercial nationsEngland, Germany, France and Russia, and later the United States-have recognized in China an almost unlimited field for future commercial activity. So the movement of progress and reform commenced, moving slowly for a time, but steady, decided and irresistable as time itself. The hordes of common people retained their ancestral customs and belief and intense antipathy for all things foreign, but the movement had commenced and took the direction indicated by the the enlightened few. How wide the gulf between ignorance, bigotry and superstition on the one hand and the new order of things on the other is evident. The Empress Dowager, who is ambitious and highly educated, must

have recognized in the encroachments. and increasing influence of foreign nations a danger to China, but she attempted to utilize the growing power in her own behalf. She violated all the precedents. in receiving the ambassadors and other distinguished foreigners in person, an act which almost caused a ferment in China. The people demanded a stricter following of their Book of Rites which is as sacred to the Flowery Kingdom as the Bible is to Christendom. The Empress continued, however, to receive. foreigners, and her influence has been on the side of reform, which has made some progress among the higher classes throughout the chief cities of China. New ports have been opened, railways projected, mines worked, factories builded and new treaties made. These are some of the things that have brought about the upheaval and awakening. Other factors are the result of the recent war with Japan, with its crushing defeats, enormous indemnities and consequent forced loans, and the internal dissensions over the succession to the throne. The missionaries may be considered as a factor in producing the present uprising of Boxers only insofar as they are foreigners. There are seven thousand American missionaries in China China representing the Protestant churches of the United States. besides a large number of Catholics and missionaries from other lands. They are a peace-loving people, and the good work they have accomplished can hardly be overestimated. There ought to be no patience with the sentiment that goes out to the world depreciating missionaries and missionary work. Whatever may be the cause of this uprising, however, it seems certain. that the Boxer movement, merciless and horrible as it is, seals the doom of the old order of things in China. If the integrity of the Empire cannot be longer maintained it is to be hoped.

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