for themselves. This should be undertaken at the earliest moment consistent with safety and assured success.

It is important that our relations with these people shall be of the most friendly character and our commercial relations close and reciprocal. It should be our duty to assist in every proper way to build up the waste places of the island, encourage the industry of the people and assist them to form a government which shall be free and independent, thus realizing the best aspirations of the Cuban people.

Spanish rule must be replaced by a just, benevolent and humane government, created by the people of Cuba, capable of performing all international obligations, and which shall encourage thrift, industry and prosperity, and promote peace and good will among all of the inhabitants, whatever may have been their relations in the past. Neither revenge nor passion should have a place in the new government.

WM. MCKINLEY,

President of the United States.

CHAPTER XXII.

MCKINLEY AND EXPANSION.

When the thirteen original states won freedom from England and independence before the world, the new republic possessed an area of 827,844 square miles.

That expansion, or an extending of the borders of the republic, has been the fixed policy of the nation it is necessary only to say that there have since been added 2,895,380 square miles. The territory now embraced within the confines of the United States of America is almost five times as great as the original area, vast as was the extent of that great region which America won for Americans-native and naturalized. The territory acquired by expansion since the Revolutionary War is three-and-a-half times greater than the original thirteen states.

With such a record it is pretty clear expansion is an American policy, and in keeping with the traditions of the republic.

In the one hundred and fifteen years following the peace with Great Britain, 2,771,040 square miles had been added by conquest or purchase— usually by conquest first, and later by a sort of consolatory payment of what the property would have been worth if the enemy had ceded it without the trouble or expense of a war.

In the three last years of McKinley's administration the area of the nation was extended 124,340 square miles. In truth, however, this extension of territory was all accomplished in a single year. It may be interesting to add, however, that the total annexation preceding the war with Spain averaged 24,696 square miles annually; while the expansion accomplished by President McKinley's administration from the moment he secured the first treaty of addition down to the present time averages 41,446 square miles annually.

He secured almost double the average annual increase of territory credited to any or all previous administrations.

Briefly stated, the several former annexations were as follows:

But the territory acquired in the McKinley administration has been for the purpose of safeguarding that matchless possession secured in all the preceding century, and of insuring to the millions who inhabit this land the certainty that they shall continue in the enjoyment of that prosperity their past labors and the sacrifices of their fathers have placed in their possession.

For example, the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands was a war measure. At the moment of Admiral Dewey's victory in Manila Bay, the United States became an active power in the Pacific, and every consideration, naval and commercial, made it desirable that the American flag should float over this fertile group. Figuratively speaking, Hawaii was sitting on Uncle Sam's doorstep waiting to come in. The islands had offered themselves to the United States Government. It was not necessary to wage a war of conquest or open peaceful negotiations. All that was necessary was to pass a resolution of annexation.

Accordingly, on June 15, the Newlands annexation resolution was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 209 to 91. The Senate passed the same resolution by a vote of 42 to 21, and President McKinley approved it July 7, 1898.

The Hawaiian Islands, formerly known as the Sandwich Islands, are situated in the North Pacific Ocean, and lie between longitude 154 degrees 40 minutes and 160 degrees 30 minutes west from Greenwich, and latitude 22 degrees 16 minutes and 18 degrees 55 minutes north. They are thus on the very edge of the tropics, but their position in mid-ocean and the prevalence of the northeast trade winds give them a climate of perpetual summer without enervating heat. The group occupies a central position in the North Pacific, 2,089 nautical miles southwest of San Francisco; 4,640 from Panama; 3,800 from Auckland, New Zealand; 4,950 from Hongkong, and 3,440 from Yokohama. Its location gives it great importance from a military as well as from a commercial point of view.

Broadly speaking, Hawaii may be said to lie about one-third of the distance on the accustomed routes from San Francisco to Japanese and Chinese ports; from San Francisco to Australia; from ports of British Columbia to Australia and British India, and about halfway from the Isthmus of Panama to Yokohama and Hongkong. The construction of a ship canal across the isthmus would extend this geographical relation to the ports of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Atlantic Seaboard of North and South America. No other point in the North Pacific has such a dominating relation to the trade between America and Asia, as a place of call and depot of supplies for vessels.

From a naval standpoint, Hawaii is the great strategic base of the Pacific. Under the present conditions of naval warfare, created by the use of steam as a motive power, Hawaii secures to the maritime nation possessing it an immense advantage as a depot for the supply of coal. Modern battleships, depending absolutely upon coal, are enabled to avail themselves of their full capacity of speed and energy only by having some halfway station in the Pacific where they can replenish their stores of fuel and refit. A battleship or cruiser starting from an Asiatic or Australian port, with the view of operating along the coast of either North America or South America, is unable to act effectively for any length of time at the end of so long a voyage unless she is able to refill her bunkers at some point on the way. On the other hand, the United States, possessing Hawaii, is able to advance its line of defense 2,000 miles from the Pacific coast, and, with a fortified harbor

and a strong fleet at Honolulu, is in a position to conduct either defensive or offensive operations in the North Pacific to greater advantage than any other power.

For practical purposes, there are eight islands in the Hawaiian group. The others are mere rocks, of no value at present. These eight islands, beginning from the northwest, are named Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui and Hawaii. The areas of the islands are:

On Oahu is the capital, Honolulu. It is a city numbering 30,000 inhabitants, and is pleasantly situated on the south side of the Island. The city extends a considerable distance up Nuuanu Valley, and has wings extending northwest and southeast. Except in the business blocks, every house stands in its own garden, and some of the houses are very handsome.

The city is lighted with electric light, there is a complete telephone system, and tramcars run at short intervals along the principal streets and continue out to a sea-bathing resort and public park, four miles from the city. There are numerous stores where all kinds of goods can be obtained. The public buildings are attractive and commodious. There are numerous churches, schools, a public library of over 10,000 volumes, Y. .M. C. A. Hall, Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows' Hall, and theater. There is frequent steam communication with San Francisco, once a month with Victoria (British Columbia), and twice a month with New Zealand and the Australian colonies. Steamers also connect Honolulu with Japan. There are three evening daily papers published in English, one daily morning paper and two weeklies. Besides these, there are papers published in the Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese languages, and also monthly magazines in various tongues.

United States Consul-General Mills, of Honolulu, under date of Febru