The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-12
CASH FoR THE sPANIARDs.


When the peace protocol was made pub
lie the whole world applauded the gener-
osity of the United States because they
did not demand a money Indemnity from
Spain. It was quite generally expected
that an indemnify of few millions would
l be demanded. No one suspected for a
| moment however, that on this side Of the
ocean It would be proposed by any citi-
zen that the United States should pay
Spain anything, or should pay any part of
either the Cuban or the Philippine bonds.
But 1t scenes there is some sentiment in
favor of helping Spain pay her bonded
debt, provided she will release all claim
to the Philippines In the October num-
Der of the North American Review there
is an article entitled What Shall Be
Done With the Far East?" The author
of it is Mayo W. Hazeltine. He takes
the position that we cannot without loss
of self respect and the loss of the respect
Of the world, give up the Philippines be-
cause the Spaniards have been more bru-
tai in their treatment of the natives of
those islands than they have of the Gu
bans.
When he takes that position he of
course. assumes that the Philippines are
in our possession. But, as matter of
fact. he does not think that they are.
because he says that If our commission
ers should demand the Islands the Span
ish commissioners would refuse to give
them UP, and that public opinion in this
country would not sustain the admins
tration I'm going to war again to get pos
session of them. Therefore, he proposes
that the United States shall pay that
part of the Spanish debt which Is saddled
upon the Philippine revenues. also a por-
ton of the Cuban debt, in all about
800, 100000 He thinks that if the United
States would make an offer of that kind
Spain would accept 1t. He does not give
his reasons for thinking that a settlement
could be reached on the basis which he
suggests. The probability Is he hasn't
any
We do not believe that the American
people want the Philippines so badly as to
be willing to pay a big sum of money for
them, or in fact anything for them. The
reason the President did not demand them
when he framed the peace protocol was
that he did not want them and ne did not
believe that the people wanted them. And
as a matter of fact, the great majority
of the people don't want them. They
know that they would be a constant
source of expense and might involve the
country in a long and costly war. We
feel sure that il the proposition suggest
ed by Mr.. Hazeltine were presented to
them they would reject 1t by an over
whelmng majority. One hundred million
dollars could be put to a much better use.
What the peace commission is going to
demand so far as the Philippines are con-
cerned is a mater that has not yet been
made public, but we are confident that
the American people would be satisfied
with coaling station and commercial
privileges equal to those which Spain en-
joys. There would be murmuring, of
course, but the majority would be salts
fed. If more is demanded they would not
consent to support the demand by a money
consideration. Unless we greatly misun-
derstand public sentiment, the administra-
ton could not do more unpopular thing
than to agree TO pay Spain money or pay
any part of the debt for which Spain Is
responsible