The Land of To-Morrow 15 



I am not prepared to discuss the pros and cons of 

 Imperialism in a book which merely professes to 

 be a pot-pourri of personal experience; but I can 

 understand why the word itself is offensive to 

 many good Americans. Expansion, to my mind, 

 better expresses the purpose and policy of those 

 who have annexed the Philippines. Already, we 

 are told, the bill to be paid for these islands 

 amounts to more than two hundred millions of 

 dollars ; a large sum, but not too heavy a price to 

 pay for that moral expansion which has revitalised 

 a country needing perhaps no fresh territory. Al- 

 though I use the word "moral" I am confining 

 myself to practical politics. The sentimentalists, 

 the men of Utopia, are as usual astride the fence. 

 We know only too well that from them proceed, in 

 endless prolixity, empty words, — vox, et prccterea 

 nihil. But even to those who take the world as 

 it is, to those whose eyes are undimmed by party 

 prejudice, the annexation of the Philippines and the 

 protectorate of Cuba mean something far more im- 

 portant than the acquisition of rich territory, or 

 the right to take a leading place in the councils of 

 the nations. It is very questionable to the writer 

 whether the one or other of these is worth much 



a goodly share of their future prosperity. ... If we include the 

 long winding coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, we have a 

 grand total of nearly thirty-five hundred miles facing the Pacific. 

 . . . China, Japan, Siberia, Siam, the Philippines, and Korea, not 

 only want the flour of the Pacific Coast, but they are developing a 

 growing demand for timber, manufactured food supplies, and a long 

 list of lesser products," 



Note. — The grand total of Pacific trade exchange — exports and 

 imports — was $210,000,000 for the year 1898. 



