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.