The Two Great Republics: Rome and the United States Part 15

The pretense of patriotism in America a.s.sumed by having one's self designated by a name of patriotic appellation--such as "Honest" John Doe, "Brave" Richard Roe, and the "Patriot" John Stiles--is but a parallel to the schemes of the ancient tricksters. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun, and as man so are republics of men--both alike in greatness and in littleness.

There is slight opportunity for comparison between the Roman colonial system and that of our own country. It is true that of both alike it may be said the beginning of foreign conquest came as an accident, and the acquisition of territory beyond the seas found them unprepared for its government. Here, it is to be hoped, the resemblance will be found to have ceased. When Rome had once tasted the fruits of foreign conquest, the extension of such conquests became the great object of Roman ambition. It was not by accident but by deliberately planned wars of conquest that the so-called world empire of the Romans was acquired.

With the United States the comparatively few and unimportant insular possessions are still a matter of secondary concern. But few of the citizens of this country give any thought or attention to these possessions, and many even favor their abandonment.

Both Rome and the United States found the problem of reconciling foreign colonies with republican inst.i.tutions a difficult one. The Roman administration of her colonies was always tinged with corruption and injustice; and, unfortunately, our own insular rule has not been entirely free from these evils. A great trouble in the case of each republic was that she failed or refused to make any real effort to introduce her own principles of government into the government of her provinces. There is much more excuse for this failure in the case of Rome than in that of our own country. As was shown in the chapter on Roman legislative a.s.semblies, her ignorance of the principle of representative legislative a.s.semblies made the extension of free government over extended areas impossible, or at least very difficult.

But our own system of local self-government is one adapted to any country, and capable of indefinite expansion. The highly centered bureaucracy of the Philippine government is one without precedent in our own country, and without any fitness for the Philippines or any other colony. The slight self-government given to the Filipinos is merely enough to call attention to that which is refused them. No successful government of these Islands, either by our country or by the Filipinos themselves, will ever be secured while all questions of government for so many diverse races are settled by a few high government officials at the capital--Manila. Particularly will this objectionable condition continue so long as the places of authority are filled by men named from every portion of the country except that part most nearly a.s.sociated with the destiny of the Islands. The system of rewarding political service--and that ofttimes of a questionable character--given in America to men who served ballot-box emergencies, and to men who hope to reward themselves by fruitful opportunity, must cease, or government in these outlying possessions will lead to internal revolt or external military imperialism.

It is plainly to be seen that conditions in the United States of America have tended toward those of Rome which preceded the latter's downfall. Particularly true is this of latter-day conditions in the United States. The monopoly of Cra.s.sus in town lots in Rome--and the exclusive right to dictate the price of farm products by the Fabii and their successors, which produced riots in the country and uprisings in the cities--have their parallel in the "corners" of the stock exchanges and grain houses of America, and in the monopoly in oil and its elements. These methods and the domination of legislative bodies by these ma.s.sive interests, the corrupting of the a.s.semblies of the people and the defiling of the courts, have created a revolt in the hearts of the Americans and awakened an insurrection among the citizenship. These, if not abated by the government's action in controlling these agencies or restraining with plenary punishment the perpetrators of the wrong, will surely reproduce a parallel in the results which befell the Roman republic. Cicero has well said, "Governments, like all organized creations, have their time to perish and to fade. The same conduct of persecution or protection work on each alike in the final results"--a sure continuance of life, or a sure result of certain death.

Let it be remembered that man is ever himself and mankind ever human.

No ill will be borne that can be overthrown. It will all return to the first principle of force--Byron puts it well--as the moral of all human tales:

"First freedom, then glory; With that past--avarice--corruption-- Barbarism at last-- And all of history's volumes vast Hath writ but one page."

It has been the dream of those who in war fought for, and in peace strove for, a just republic in the United States, that the awakened conscience of a people educated anew under a Christian era would be a guarantee against the repet.i.tion of those evils which hara.s.sed government and injured men in the days of the Roman republic. It is now seen that this dream is being to a most encouraging extent gratified. In America wrong is at last condemned because it is not right. Right is approved--for that it is right. Justice is praised and sustained because it is just to do so, and the oppression of man resisted and despised because it is unworthy civilized man and in violation of the dictates of conscience speaking the voice of G.o.d.

In this new era America is working out her destiny of equality of man and equity of mankind, and this by the methods of peaceful persuasion--dictated from the heart. War is abhorred and brotherhood of man cherished as a coming state of modern citizenship proving in all its effect the justice and right of the theory of the American republic founded on the a.s.sertion that "Just governments derive their power from the consent of the governed." Education, bringing enlightenment in all avenues of life's pursuits, is rapidly giving to the American man the a.s.surance and security that his government will be perpetuated by its citizens, not destroyed--will be glorified as an ideal after which other nations and people may pattern.

"Our Fathers' G.o.d! from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand,

Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long, In peace secure, in justice strong: Around our gift of freedom draw The safeguards of Thy righteous law; And, cast in some diviner mold, Let the new cycle shame the old."