ong. Spain, from the very first,
as the records show, was inhumanly oppressive to the inferior races;
and, after her own descendants in the colonies became aliens in habit
to the home country, she to them also became tyrannically exacting.
But, still more, Spain became weaker and weaker as the years passed,
the tyranny of her extortions being partially due to exigencies of her
political weakness and to her economical declension. Let us, however,
not fail to observe that the beneficence, as well as the strength, of
Great Britain has been a matter of growth. She was not always what she
now is to the alien subject. There is, therefore, no reason to
despair, as some do, that the United States, who share her traditions,
can attain her success. The task is novel to us; we may make blunders;
but, guided by her experience, we should reach the goal more quickly.

And it is to our interest to do so. Enlightened self-interest demands
of us to recognize not merely, and in general, the imminence of the
great question of the farther East, which is rising so rapidly before
us, but also, specifically, the importance to us of a strong and
beneficent occupation of adjacent territory. In the domain of color,
black and white are contradictory; but it is not so with self-interest
and beneficence in the realm of ideas. This paradox is now too
generally accepted for insistence, although in the practical life of
states the proper order of the two is too often inverted. But, where
the relations are those of trustee to ward, as are those of any state
which rules over a weaker community not admitted to the full
privileges of home citizenship, the first test to which measures must
be brought is the good of the ward. It is the first interest of the
guardian, for it concerns his honor. Whatever the part of the United
States in the growing conflict of European interests around China and
the East, we deal there with equals, and may battle like men; but our
new possessions, with their yet minor races, are the objects only of
solicitude.

Ideas underlie action. If the paramount idea of beneficence becomes a
national conviction, we may stumble and err, we may at times sin, or
be betrayed by unworthy representatives; but we shall advance
unfailingly. I have been asked to contribute to the discussion of this
matter something from my own usual point of view; which is, of
course, the bearing of sea power upon the security and the progress of
nations. Well,