Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/283

 McKINLEY

��instanter of the first shots fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation. The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that his- toric harbor when the fact was flashed to our Capitol, and the swift destruction that followed was announced immediately through the wonder- ful medium of telegraphy.

So accustomed are we to safe and easy com- munication with distant lands that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss and inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and suspense when no information was permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the diplomatic representatives of the nations in China, cut off from all communication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were sur- rounded by an angry and misguided mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that thrilled the world when a single message from the govern- ment of the United States brought through our minister the first news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam railroad on the globe; now there are enough miles to make its circuit many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph : now we have a vast mileage traversing all lan^]s and seas. God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we 243

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