Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/547

Rh to certain utterances put forth in his speech at the Carnegie Hall meeting, in which he “sounded the keynote of the campaign.” There he told us that the question is not merely whether he or his competitor will make the better governor of New York, but that by electing him we are to declare to the whole world that the State of New York stands behind the National Administration in its annexation policy, how far that policy may ever go. And even more than that. He virtually asks us to endorse, by electing him, his kind of militant imperialism, which has no bounds. According to him, we need a big navy and “a far larger regular army than we now have,” not for the purpose of keeping order at home, but for action abroad. The American people who, we have always supposed, have so far enjoyed the reputation of being the most enterprising, active, stirring and energetic people in the world, are, according to him, in danger of “rusting out” and of drifting into stagnation, like that of China. He is afraid lest the “soft, easy life” which, it seems, the American people have been and are now leading, may “impair the fiber of brain and heart and muscle.” He thinks that to avoid so sad a fate we must have more occupation—that is, occupation abroad—and that we must constantly “live in the harness and strive mightily,” even at the risk of “wearing out”; and, of course, for this “living in harness and striving mightily” big armies and navies—how big nobody can tell—will be very much needed.

I repeat, such a program goes beyond the mere present annexation of the Philippines. But, extravagant as it may seem, every one acquainted with Mr. Roosevelt knows that this is the thing in which he really believes and which is nearest to his heart.

It may be said that as governor of New York he would not have the power to carry such ideas into effect. This