McKINLEY AND EXPANSION.
When the thirteen original states won freedom from England and
independence before the world, the new republic possessed an area of
827,844 square miles.
That expansion, or an extending of the borders of the republic, has been
the fixed policy of the nation it is necessary only to say that there
have since been added 2,895,380 square miles. The territory now embraced
within the confines of the United States of America is almost five times
as great as the original area, vast as was the extent of that great
region which America won for Americans—native and naturalized. The
territory acquired by expansion since the Revolutionary War is
three-and-a-half times greater than the original thirteen states.
With such a record it is pretty clear expansion is an American policy,
and in keeping with the traditions of the republic.
In the one hundred and fifteen years following the peace with Great
Britain, 2,771,040 square miles had been added by conquest or
purchase—usually by conquest first, and later by a sort of consolatory
payment of what the property would have been worth if the enemy had
ceded it without the trouble or expense of a war.
In the three last years of McKinley’s administration the area of the
nation was extended 124,340 square miles. In truth, however, this
extension of territory was all accomplished in a single year. It may be
interesting to add, however, that the total annexation preceding the war
with Spain averaged 24,696 square miles annually; while the expansion
accomplished by President McKinley’s administration from the moment he
secured the first treaty of addition down to the present time averages
41,446 square miles annually.
He secured almost double the average annual increase of territory
credited to any or all previous administrations.
Briefly stated, the several former annexations were as follows:
ANNEXATION FROM 1783 TO 1893:
Amount Paid. Square Miles.
Louisiana $15,000,000 1,171,931
Florida 5,000,000 52,268
Texas 28,500,000 376,133
California 545,783
Gadsden Purchase 10,500,000 45,535
Alaska 7,200,000 577,390
——————————— —————————
$66,200,000 2,769,040
ANNEXATION FROM 1893 TO 1901:
Amount Paid. Square Miles.
Hawaii 6,740
Philippine Islands $20,000,000 114,000
Porto Rico 3,600
——————————— —————————
$20,000,000 124,340
Square Miles.
Original territory 827,844
Annexed first 110 years 2,769,040
Annexed last three years 124,340
—————————
3,721,224
But the territory acquired in the McKinley administration has been for
the purpose of safeguarding that matchless possession secured in all the
preceding century, and of insuring to the millions who inhabit this land
the certainty that they shall continue in the enjoyment of that
prosperity their past labors and the sacrifices of their fathers have
placed in their possession.
For example, the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands was a war measure.
At the moment of Admiral Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay, the United
States became an active power in the Pacific, and every consideration,
naval and commercial, made it desirable that the American flag should
float over this fertile group. Figuratively speaking, Hawaii was sitting
on Uncle Sam’s doorstep waiting to come in. The islands had offered
themselves to the United States Government. It was not necessary to wage
a war of conquest or open peaceful negotiations. All that was necessary
was to pass a resolution of annexation.
Accordingly, on June 15, the Newlands annexation resolution was passed
by the House of Representatives by a vote of 209 to 91. The Senate
passed the same resolution by a vote of 42 to 21, and President McKinley
approved it July 7, 1898.
The Hawaiian Islands, formerly known as the Sandwich Islands, are
situated in the North Pacific Ocean, and lie between longitude 154
degrees 40 minutes and 160 degrees 30 minutes west from Greenwich, and
latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes and 18 degrees 55 minutes north. They are
thus on the very edge of the tropics, but their position in mid-ocean
and the prevalence of the northeast trade winds give them a climate of
perpetual summer without enervating heat. The group occupies a central
position in the North Pacific, 2,089 nautical miles southwest of San
Francisco; 4,640 from Panama; 3,800 from Auckland, New Zealand; 4,950
from Hongkong, and 3,440 from Yokohama. Its location gives it great
importance from a military as well as from a commercial point of view.
Broadly speaking, Hawaii may be said to lie about one-third of the
distance on the accustomed routes from San Francisco to Japanese and
Chinese ports; from San Francisco to Australia; from ports of British
Columbia to Australia and British India, and about half-way from the
Isthmus of Panama to Yokohama and Hongkong. The construction of a ship
canal across the isthmus would extend this geographical relation to the
ports of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Atlantic Seaboard of North and
South America. No other point in the North Pacific has such a dominating
relation to the trade between America and Asia, as a place of call and
depot of supplies for vessels.
From a naval standpoint, Hawaii is the great strategic base of the
Pacific. Under the present conditions of naval warfare, created by the
use of steam as a motive power, Hawaii secures to the maritime nation
possessing it an immense advantage as a depot for the supply of coal.
Modern battleships, depending absolutely upon coal, are enabled to avail
themselves of their full capacity of speed and energy only by having
some half-way station in the Pacific where they can replenish their
stores of fuel and refit. A battleship or cruiser starting from an
Asiatic or Australian port, with the view of operating along the coast
of either North America or South America, is unable to act effectively
for any length of time at the end of so long a voyage unless she is able
to refill her bunkers at some point on the way. On the other hand, the
United States, possessing Hawaii, is able to advance its line of defense
2,000 miles from the Pacific coast, and, with a fortified harbor and a
strong fleet at Honolulu, is in a position to conduct either defensive
or offensive operations in the North Pacific to greater advantage than
any other power.
For practical purposes, there are eight islands in the Hawaiian group.
The others are mere rocks, of no value at present. These eight islands,
beginning from the northwest, are named Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai,
Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui and Hawaii. The areas of the islands are:
Square Miles.
Niihau 97
Kauai 590
Oahu 600
Molokai 270
Maui 760
Lanai 150
Kahoolawe 63
Hawaii 4,210
———
Total 6,740
On Oahu is the capital, Honolulu. It is a city numbering 30,000
inhabitants, and is pleasantly situated on the south side of the Island.
The city extends a considerable distance up Nuuanu Valley, and has wings
extending northwest and southeast. Except in the business blocks, every
house stands in its own garden, and some of the houses are very
handsome.
The city is lighted with electric light, there is a complete telephone
system, and tramcars run at short intervals along the principal streets
and continue out to a sea-bathing resort and public park, four miles
from the city. There are numerous stores where all kinds of goods can be
obtained. The public buildings are attractive and commodious. There are
numerous churches, schools, a public library of over 10,000 volumes,
Y. M. C. A. Hall, Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows’ Hall, and theater. There
is frequent steam communication with San Francisco, once a month with
Victoria (British Columbia), and twice a month with New Zealand and the
Australian colonies. Steamers also connect Honolulu with Japan. There
are three evening daily papers published in English, one daily morning
paper and two weeklies. Besides these, there are papers published in the
Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese languages, and also monthly
magazines in various tongues.
United States Consul-General Mills, of Honolulu, under date of February
8, 1897, transmitted to the Department of State the official figures
showing the result of the census of the Hawaiian Islands, which had just
been completed. The Hawaiians head the list with a total of 31,019. The
Japanese colonization comes next, with the Chinese a close third. The
official table, as prepared at the census office, in 1890, is:
Nationality. Males. Females. Total.
Hawaiian 16,399 14,620 31,019
Part Hawaiian 4,249 4,236 8,485
American 1,975 1,111 3,086
British 1,406 844 2,250
German 866 566 1,432
French 56 45 101
Norwegian 216 162 378
Portuguese 8,202 6,989 15,191
Japanese 19,212 5,195 24,407
Chinese 19,167 2,449 21,616
South Sea Islanders 321 134 455
Other nationalities 448 152 600
—————— —————— ———————
Total 72,517 36,503 109,020
The acquiring of Porto Rico, with its 3,600 square miles and nearly a
million inhabitants, did not require the firing of a gun so far as the
natives were concerned. The slight resistance offered by the Spaniards
who had for so many years held the island, was not serious enough to
earn the name of warfare, though so good a judge and careful an observer
as Richard Harding Davis declares this was due more to the masterly
management of General Miles, who commanded there in person, than to any
other cause—a conclusion which he reaches by comparing the Porto Rican
campaign with General Shafter’s invasion of Cuba. The conditions,
however, do not present a parallel case. The Cubans wanted the Spaniards
expelled, to be sure; but they wanted to govern that island themselves.
And they had grown so strong, had fought so long and stubbornly, and had
consequently compelled the Spaniards to maintain so great a strength
that the Americans found “the Gem of the Antilles” held with a force
that could offer quite a stubborn dispute. The Porto Ricans, on the
contrary, while wanting the Spaniards expelled, had never made much
effort at self government, and the Spaniards there were by no means
equipped to defend their possessions. Indeed, their defense was the
merest formality. And once they ceased opposition to the forces of
General Miles, the native and resident people rushed to welcome the
Americans.
So that these richest and most valuable objects of McKinley expansion
came to the possession of the great republic at practically no cost at
all—of either “blood or treasure.”
Of course the military occupation of Porto Rico did not formally invest
title to the island in the United States. The case with Hawaii was
different, because no power but the resident people made any claim to
that rich prize.
Porto Rico, the most beautiful island of the Antilles, which was ceded
to the United States by the Spanish-American treaty at Paris, 1898, is
situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, east of Haiti, from
which it is separated by the Mona Passage. Haiti lies between it and
Cuba. Porto Rico is 95 miles long and 35 broad, with an area of about
3,600 square miles, or nearly three-fourths the size of the State of
Connecticut (4,990 square miles), and considerably larger than that of
the States of Delaware and Rhode Island, which aggregate 3,300 square
miles. The island has always been noted for its mineral and agricultural
wealth; hence the Spanish name, which, in English, means “rich harbor.”
Porto Rico, or Puerto Rico (the Spanish name), was discovered by
Columbus on his second voyage, November 16, 1493. The discoverer first
sighted land near Cape San Juan and for three days sailed along the
northern coast, landing at Aguadilla. The richness and fertility of the
island caused him to name it Puerto Rico or “rich port.” He saw little
or nothing of the natives, who fled at his approach, believing that they
were about to be attacked.
The actual conquest of the island was made in 1510, two years after his
first visit, by Juan Ponce De Leon, Governor of the Island of Haiti,
then known as Hispaniola. He won the confidence of the natives and
landed an expedition to subjugate them. The Spanish conquest of Porto
Rico was marked by the bloodshed and cruelty that has characterized
Spanish conquest in all parts of the Western world. Natives were
slaughtered, or condemned to slavery. The colonization of Porto Rico by
Spaniards then followed, and to-day there is scarcely a trace of
aboriginal blood in the islands.
The aboriginal population numbered about 600,000; they were
copper-colored, though somewhat darker than the Indians of the North
American continent. The aborigines called the island Boringuen and
themselves Boringuenans.
Physically, Porto Rico is a continuation of the emerged lands of Haiti.
It is very mountainous, the altitudes ranging from 1,500 to 3,600 feet,
and among the rocks coralligenous limestones predominate. All lands
exposed to the northeast trade winds have abundant rains. The mean
temperature at the city of San Juan is 80.7 degrees F. In January and
February it is 76.5 degrees, and in July and August, 83.2 degrees. The
island is known as the most healthful of the Antilles. There are no
reptiles and no wild animals, except rats, which are numerous. The hills
are covered with tropical forests and the lands are very productive. The
streams are numerous and some of them are navigable to the foothills.
The most flourishing plantations of Porto Rico are situated on the
littoral plains and in the valleys of rivers, which are diligently
cultivated. The principal products are sugar, molasses, coffee, tobacco;
then maize, rice, cotton, tobacco, hides, dyewoods, timber, and rice.
Coffee is produced to the extent of over 16,000 tons per annum, and the
annual sugar production averages 67,000 tons.
The forests abound in mahogany, cedar, ebony, dyewoods, and a great
variety of medicinal and industrial plants. All kinds of tropical fruits
are found. An average of 190,000,000 bananas, 6,500,000 oranges,
2,500,000 cocoanuts, and 7,000,000 pounds of tobacco is produced
annually.
Sugar cane is cultivated on 61,000 acres, and the production of sugar is
the most important industry. Coffee is another staple product; and the
tobacco, which ranks second to that of the famous Cebu variety, may be
produced in almost limitless quantities. The mineral resources are not
extensive. Gold has been found, but by no means in paying quantities.
Lead, copper and iron are present, and may be profitably mined.
The government of the people of Porto Rico is by a governor-general, who
acts wholly under the direction of the President and Congress of the
United States, and all the subordinate officers of the islands are
appointees of the home government.
The most important of the lands embraced in the McKinley expansion is
the group of islands known as the Philippine archipelago, the
westernmost of the four great tropical groups of the Pacific. To be
exact, the Philippines are situated between 4 and 20 degrees north
latitude and 161 and 127 degrees east longitude, in front of China and
Cochin China. The archipelago is composed of some 2,000 islands, with an
approximate area of 114,000 square miles.
The principal islands are Luzon (Batanes, Babuyanes, Polillo,
Calanduanes, Mindoro, Marinduque, Burias, Masbate, etc., lying adjacent)
on the north; the Visayas (Tablas, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte,
Samar, etc.), prolonged southwest by the Calamaines, Palawan, and
Balabac; Mindanao and the adjacent islands Dinagat, Surigao, Basilan,
etc., and on the extreme south, the Sulu archipelago. The Island of
Luzon, on which the capital is situated, is larger than New York and
Massachusetts, and Mindanao is nearly as large. An idea of the extent of
the Philippines may be formed when it is stated that the six New England
States and New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware have 10 per cent
less area.
The approximate area of the larger islands is as follows: Luzon, 41,000;
Mindanao, 37,500; Samar, 5,300; Panay, 4,600; Palawan, 4,150; Mindoro,
4,050; Leyte, 3,090; Negros, 2,300; Cebu, 1,650; Masbate, 1,315; Bohol,
925.
The population has been estimated at from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000, of
which number about 25,000 are Europeans, about half of the latter
residing in the city of Manila. The present American population is not
included in these figures.
Manila, the capital of the entire archipelago, is situated in the Island
of Luzon, at the mouth of the River Pasig, which empties into the Bay of
Manila. The city has 300,000 inhabitants, of whom 15,000 are Europeans
and 100,000 Chinese, who are largely engaged in industry. It is the seat
of a yearly increasing commerce. The houses are built with reference to
earthquakes, and although large, possess few pretensions to
architectural beauty. The city proper within the walls is small, little
more than two miles in circumference. Here are grouped the government
buildings and religious institutions. The suburbs, of which Binondo
ranks first in order of importance, are the centers of trade. The police
of the city were under military discipline and composed of natives. A
force of watchmen, paid by the tradesmen, patrolled the more populous
part of the city from 10 o’clock at night until 5 in the morning. A very
low average of crime is said to exist, though the native classes are
much addicted to gambling, cock-fighting, etc. At the time of American
occupation there were six daily papers: “El Diario de Manila,” “La
Oceania Española,” published in the morning, and “El Comercio,” “La Voz
Española,” “El Español,” and “El Noticero,” which appear in the evening.
Manila has a cathedral of the seventeenth century, an Archbishop’s
palace, a university school of art, an observatory, a large government
cigar factory, and many educational and charitable institutions.
There are some 4,000 horses in the city, used for carriages and street
cars. Buffaloes are employed for dray and other heavy work.
On February 6, 1898, Manila suffered from a severe fire, and it is
interesting to note that the city would have been lost had it not been
for the excellent service of a fire engine which had been imported from
the United States.
Iloilo, the chief town of the populous province of the same name, in the
Island of Panay, is situated in latitude 10 degrees 48 minutes W., near
the southeastern extremity of the island, and 250 miles from Manila. The
harbor is well protected and the anchorage good. At spring tides, the
whole town is covered with water, but notwithstanding this it is a very
healthy place, there being always a breeze. It is much cooler in Iloilo
than in Manila. The means of communication with the interior are very
inadequate, and retard the development of the port. The principal
manufacture is pineapple cloth. The country around Iloilo is very
fertile and is extensively cultivated, sugar, tobacco, and rice being
grown, and there are many towns in the vicinity that are larger than the
port.
Cebu, the capital of the island of this name, was at one time the seat
of the administration of revenue for the whole of the Visayas. It is
well-built and possesses fine roads. The trade is principally in hemp
and sugar.
Other towns are Laog, with a population (1887) of 30,642; Banang,
35,598; Batangas, 35,587, and Lipa, 43,408.
The principal mineral productions are gold, galena, copper, iron,
mercury and coal. Extensive auriferous ore deposits have been opened up,
and they are known to exist in many of the islands, chiefly in Luzon,
Bengues, Vicols and Mindanao. Very little exploration or systematic
mining has been attempted, but it is said that there is no brook that
empties into the Pacific Ocean, whose sand and gravel does not at least
pan the color of gold. Heavy nuggets are sometimes brought down from the
sierras.
Galena (50 per cent of pure metal) is found in veins in Luzon and Cebu.
Copper has been discovered in many parts of the Philippines. Iron—from
75 to 80 per cent. pure metal—is known to exist in Luzon. The coal found
up to the present time is not true coal, but lignite; but it is probable
true coal will be found, as the mountains of Japan abound in that
mineral, and the geological formation in both groups seems to be the
same.
Hemp (abaca), the most important product of the archipelago, is the
fiber of a species of banana, and is produced by scraping the leaves
with a peculiar knife, which requires expert handling. Improved
machinery will vastly increase the profit of this product. Thread is
spun from the fiber, and cloth is woven that excels in fineness the best
Tussore silk.
The production of sugar is being rapidly developed, the principal sugar
provinces being those of the north, or most progressive part of the
island. But at present the means of reducing the cane to sugar are
crude. It is quite certain the business will become immensely profitable
as soon as modern methods can be introduced.
Tobacco would be an important resource of the Philippines with proper
management. But the timber wealth of the islands is incalculable. There
are many varieties of trees, the forests yielding resins, gums, dye
products, fine-grained ornamental wood, and also heavy timber suitable
for building purposes. Teak, ebony, and sandalwood are found; also
ilang-ilang, camphor, pepper, cinnamon, tea and all tropical fruits.
But the securing of the Philippines has differed in many essential
respects from the methods obtaining in the other cases. The expansion in
that direction has cost the $20,000,000 paid to Spain for a
relinquishment of her rights there, besides the cost of the war with
Spain, and the succeeding war with the natives. Just what these two
items may in the end appear cannot at present be definitely stated, any
more than the value of the islands so acquired can be declared at once.
But if there were nothing beside Admiral Dewey’s victory at Manila Bay,
May 1, 1898, to place on the credit side of the ledger, and all the
expense for military, naval and civil operations since accrued to charge
against it on the debit side, the balance would be still vastly in favor
of the United States. All the losses of every description that have
fallen in any way upon the republic since May 1, 1898, are more than
compensated by the value of that one day.
Before the Manila Bay fight the United States was an unconsidered
nation. It was not regarded as a power at all. The world treated the
American Republic with a good natured contempt, or refrained altogether
from considering it. The nations across the seas made all their
arrangements of peace or war, of commerce and of crowns, without even
remotely considering “the States.” So far as the large questions
affecting world interests were concerned, the United States provoked no
more calculation than did Uruguay.
Of course it was understood that the Republic was big, and abounding
full of material resources—a sort of undeveloped and untrained giant. It
was conceded that the Republic kept a sort of curmudgeon watch over the
whole hemisphere—barring Canada; and that no “Power” could make war on
Mexico or Latin America without the certainty of getting into a fight
which might be extremely distressing. And so no one made war there.
But the Republic was a hermit nation before Dewey received McKinley’s
order to fire, and, obeying, won his marvelous victory.
From that time forward the United States of America has been a world
power. It has actually dominated every European nation in the China
affair. It has in a day leaped to a place where it towers above the
Powers of older lands, and commands them. And they must obey. A nation
with such a navy as Dewey exhibited, with such power as the fleet under
Schley demonstrated at Santiago, is a nation to make terms with. A
nation which could in a month fling an army of 97,000 men across twelve
thousand miles of ocean, and never miss them at home, is a nation to
respect. A nation with such a navy and army and such boundless
resources, which had also possessed itself of Hawaii, the half-way house
in the wide Pacific; which also held the Philippines, garrisoned and
guarded at the very doors of Asia, and which had made the islands of the
Atlantic its outposts against an advance from Europe—that nation is
Master of the World. They all recognized it. And every day that has
passed since the Olympia led that line of boats past Corregidor has
increased the estimate which the nations of the earth have of the United
States of America.
The recent purchase of the Danish West India Islands is but another link
in the chain which secures to the Republic the vast possessions the
years have brought. When that transaction is completed, which can not be
until the Senate shall ratify the act, this young world power will be
girdled with guardians against any enemy who may advance.
It is a curious commentary on the scornful estimate of the Republic
entertained by the old world powers, and a definite proof of its
existence, that they never confessed America had captured their markets
until they discovered it had captured the means of holding the markets,
and extending them. They never rallied to combine against “the
encroachments of American trade” until the time had passed when their
combining might be effective. They can not stop either the commercial or
the military advance of the Republic. And the crown of the world’s
control rests to-day on the head of the nation which William McKinley
roused from lethargy; which he summoned from a fat and comfortable
repose, and charged with the duty of taking its rightful place among the
nations of the earth. And that crown, so wisely secured, can never be
taken away.
A longer life would have given President McKinley opportunity to develop
the field into which he had led the Republic; but it is proof of the
man’s quality that he did his work so well it cannot be undone. He stood
like a rock against declaring war with Spain not only until he knew what
was the will of the people, but until they knew it. He did not go
forward until, out of the mighty passions of April, 1898, the millions
of Americans had come to know themselves. When the vital purpose of the
nation was so fixed it never could turn back, then the hand of the
President made the signal which flung wide the gates of the great
Republic, and commanded his legions to possess the earth.
That was a mighty trial a supreme test of a marvelous man. He knew the
vital consequences bound up in action then. Things could never again be
as they were before war was declared. It was not simply a fight with
Spain, and a victory over her; it was an advance upon the world. It was
not simply measuring lances with Leon and Castile; it was measuring the
might of brain and brawn, of courage and skill, of America’s splendid
manhood, against all the forces of all the world, and for all time! He
could not let his people make a mistake. If he had yielded at the first
hot demand for war, the recall would have sounded from millions before
the first day’s march was done. But he waited till the pressure of his
people proved that they were all of one mind; that they had heard the
assembly call of a world duty, and had all “fallen in.” And then he gave
the command: “Forward!”
McKinley and expansion!
Has it ever occurred to the reader how small a part of the McKinley
expansion is expressed in these figures: “124,340 square miles annexed?”
That is only the land, the rock and soil, the food and drink, the most
material and least expressive of all the elements in this material
advance. Even in square miles, imagine what the annexation of Hawaii
means. Compute the vastness of that realm acquired in the Philippines.
Why, it is the breadth of the whole Pacific Ocean, and a path so wide
that no nation can send a ship around the world without trespassing on
the boundless domain of the young Republic. William McKinley has
advanced the borders of his nation to include the seas. He has set the
boundaries of the United States of America so far that they embrace
one-half the earth. From the sentinel, St. Thomas, eastern outpost in
the Atlantic’s waves, across the continent, and out to the farthest
verge of the mighty Pacific, to the gates of ancient Asia, he has fixed
the frontiers of his country.
That is expansion under McKinley!