Page images
PDF
EPUB

in half the commercial routes of the Western World we shall hold the key of its rising trade and be the master force in all its broad influence and policy.

With this commanding position and opportunity what are our resources and present achievements? What are the elements of power with which we engage in the world's rivalry? The astonishing story sounds like a rhapsody. The American people grow one-fifth of the world's wheat, seven-eighths of its cotton, and nine-tenths of its corn. We consume one-third of its wool and one-half of its metals. We do two-fifths of its mining in value and hold nearly one-half of all its coal-fields. We make one-fourth of its iron and one-third of its steel. We have one-third more railroad mileage than all Europe, and with only one-fifth of Europe's population we do four-fifths as much railroad business. We earn every year nearly as much as Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and Italy put together. We manufacture one-third of all that comes from the teeming workshops and factories of the whole world, and in thirty years, so rapid is our advance, the aggregate growth of our industries has been more than double that of England, France, and Germany combined. Though the youngest of all the nations, with a flag but little over a century old, we possess one-fifth of all the wealth of the world. In the treasuries of our dómain and in the brain and brawn of our people we have boundless resources of power and progress, and with these magnificent strides who can measure the sweep of our supremacy in another hundred years?

These fabulous figures show both our unequaled power of production and our unparalleled capacity of consumption. We create more than any other people and we use more. Our greatness has been within ourselves. The field of foreign commerce is the only material realm we have yet to conquer. In our stupendous home development the time had not come for the outward look. We had far less need of it than other nations. The commerce of England represents more than one-third of the value of her chief occupations, while the commerce of the United States represents less than one-tenth of ours. Our domestic exchanges amount to nearly thirty times the whole volume of our foreign commerce, and they aggregate more than six times all the imports of all the nations of the world. What wonder that with this matchless market at home we have been negligent in looking abroad! But in the evolution of our material greatness the time has now come for the fruition of these mighty resources beyond our borders. It is a triumphant vindication of the American policy that it has first created and established our American industries, that then it has given them unchallenged sovereignty within our own vast domain, and that now it has fortified and equipped them to enter into the world's ar

duous competition. And so, with all the superiority of our position, with one arm outstretched to the East and the other to the West, with all the advantage of being the only great industrial power that is self-sustaining, we boldly embark upon the career of commercial extension.-Charles Emory Smith, at Banquet of American Manufacturers, January 27, 1898.

ANNEXATION.

ISLAND POSSESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

It has been argued that the annexation of Hawaii is a departure from the traditions of the country and a foolish experiment, because it is not contiguous territory, the case of Alaska being set down as still an experiment. But in annexing Hawaii there is no departure from the traditions of the country. The country has already made numerous annexations of insular territory.

MIDWAY ISLAND.

This island was annexed in 1868 by order of the executive department of the United States. The action taken thereunder is fully described in Senate Executive Document No. 79, Fortieth Congress, second session. An appropriation of $50,000 was made by the third session of the Fortieth Congress by act approved March 1, 1869.

This is contained in United States Statutes at Large, volume 15, chapter 48, page 279. It is also referred to in the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1870, on page 8, and Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1871, pages 6, 7, and 8,

The object of the annexation was to create a naval station there. Midway Island is the westernmost of the Hawaiian group.

The appropriation was all spent, and an estimate made showing that it would cost some $400,000 more to open the harbor, which is a lagoon harbor with a bar of coral across at the entrance on which there is only 15 feet of water. The heavy expense and the loss of a war ship engaged in bringing away the laborers when the $50,000 was expended interfered with the continuance of the plan to make a naval station, but the island still belongs to the United States.

OTHER ISLAND ANNEXATIONS.

The United States owns the Aleutian Islands, extending a thousand miles west of Hawaii, which it acquired in conjunction with Alaska. It also owns fifty-seven other islands and groups of islands in the Pacific and thirteen in the Caribbean Sea, which have been taken possession of by American citizens under act of Congress dated August 15, 1856, which provides for the registration and protection of islands so annexed. The principal object of

such annexations was to secure the guano located on such islands, but it only makes the precedent so much the stronger in that it indicates that so small a matter as the securing of a limited amount of fertilizer is sufficient reason for insular annexation.

The traditions of the country are to annex whatever territory or country is needed.

The fact that the greater portion of the territory annexed was not insular is no precedent or tradition against insular annexations when such annexations would be valuable to the country.

In other words, the question of whether the territory proposed to be annexed is insular or continental is not and should not be the criterion, but the deciding line is whether or not its annexation would be valuable to the United States.

The names, location, and date of acquisition of the islands which have become United States territory under the above-mentioned act of 1856 are as follows:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

APPROPRIATIONS.

Appropriations-Second session, Fifty-fifth Congress, compared with the law of 1897-98.

[Statement of Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.] The sum of $892,527,991.16 has been appropriated at this session of Congress. This includes $117,836,220 of permanent appropriations to meet sinking-fund requirements of and interest on the public debt, and for other objects, and $361,788,095.11 to meet expenditures of the war with Spain.

Deducting the last two from the sum first mentioned, there remains $412,903,676.05, representing the appropriations made at the present session to meet all ordinary expenses of the Government; which sum is only $4,246,816.75 more than was appropriated at the last session of the last Congress for the same purposes (including the appropriations made during the recent extra session), which apparent excess is almost doubly offset by the increased appropriation of $8,070,872.46 for the payment of pensions on account of the fiscal year 1898, provided for in a deficiency act at this session. No river and harbor bill has been passed at this session; but the sundry civil act carries $14,031,613.56 to meet contracts authorized by previous Congresses for river and harbor works.

No laws authorizing the construction of public buildings in any of the cities throughout the country have been enacted, and otherwise the legislation authorizing expenditures and appropriations has been confined to the actual necessities of the Government, and to meet all demands incident to the existing war.

The following tables show, by acts, the appropriations made for war expenditures, and also the history of the appropriation bills for the session.

In addition to the appropriations made specifically for expenses of the conduct of the war since its inception and for the first six months of the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1898, contracts have been authorized on the naval appropriation act for new war vessels and for their armament, for which Congress will be called upon in the future to appropriate to an amount estimated at $19,216,156.

APPROPRIATIONS TO MEET EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE WAR.

For the National defense, act March 9, 1898...
Army and Navy deficiencies, act May 4, 1898..
Naval appropriation act, May 4, 1898-amount of increase over preceding
Naval appropriation act.

[ocr errors]

$50,117,000 00 34,625,725 71

23,095,549 49

Fortification appropriation act, May 7, 1898-amount of increase over act as passed by House...

5,232,582 00

Naval auxiliary act, May 26, 1898..

Additional clerical force, War Department, Auditors' offices, etc., act May 31, 1898...........

3,000,000 00

227,976 45

Life-Saving Service, act June 7, 1898..

Army and Navy deficiencies, act June 8, 1898..

Appropriations in act to provide ways and means to meet war expenditures,
June 13, 1898......

Army, Navy, and other war expenses for six months, beginning July 1, 1898,
in general deficiency act.....

Expenses of bringing home remains of soldiers...

[ocr errors][merged small]

$70,000 00 18,015,000 00

600,000 00

226,604,261 46 200,000 00

361,788,095 11

[blocks in formation]

a No amount is included in the estimates for 1899 for the Agricultural Department for agricultural experiment stations in the several States authorized by the act of March 2, 1587. The amounts appropriate for this purpose for 1898 and 1899 are $720,000 respectively. b One-half of the amounts for the District of Columbia payable by the United States, except amounts for the water department (estimated for 1899 at $140,851.71), which are payable from the revenues of the water department.

c Includes all expenses of the postal service payable from postal revenues and out of the Treasury.

d This amount is exclusive of $18,098,007.56 to meet contracts authorized by law for river and harbor improvements included in the sundry civil estimates for 1899.

« PreviousContinue »