Arizona republican., 1898-08-05
THE PUBLIC AND PHILIPPINES

from all parts Of the country concern ing the disposition of the Philippines. and is willing to accept the utterances representative of what the people think, he can arrive immediately at certain we'll defined conclusions First he cannot fail to see that the sentiment very strong. It is stronger than it was when Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila bay. It is probably stronger than it was month or six weeks ago. It is by no means unani- nous, but the great majority of repub- lican papers are ranged on the side of annexation, and the proportion of democratic journals taking the same view is by no means inconsiderable. It is scarcely too much to say, also, that the general tone of the independ- ent press is favorable rather to the absorption of the archipelago in our government system than to any other policy thus far proposed.
 This widespread sentiment is the product of the most various causes There are papers that believe in an- nexation because they see no other reasonable course to be pursued. They do not think the United States can re- linquish the islands to Spain, and they are certain it would be folly to hand them over to the insurgents. They re- volt, also, against the idea that we ought to make present of the group to any continental power This class of journals rest their advocacy of an- nexation on mere negative grounds
 Some of them frankly say they wish we could avoid the responsibility of taking the islands, but do not see how we can conscientiously do so We must make, they affirm, the best of a bad bargain and retain not only Ma nila but the entire colony.
 Other papers are in favor of annexa- tion for positive reasons. They regard the Philippines as one of the richest provinces on the face of the earth They point to our already large trade with Manila and Ioilo and argue that if we absorb the islands we shall enter perfOrce on new era of commercial prosperity. With a string of insular possessions stretching across the Pa cilic, our western cities will grow in wealth and importance and a new i'm pulse be given to every branch of prop ductive industry. A third clas1 5}eI6o nexationists are less impressed by the advantages attaining .o us in com mercial way, b,,. insist we have no moral rigbt to abandon the archipel- ago either to Spain or to the insurg- ants. Under Castilian or native rule. they say the islands would remain in densest ignorance and vice, nor should we agree to the imposition of a purely continental civilization upon them What we ought to do is to make more certain the dominance Of the Anglo Saxon in the far east We should send our surplus ministers of the gospel and school teachers across the Pacific and begin the tedious task of lifting the eight or ten million Filipinos tC a higher level of civilization. We have no right to let them stay in theil present lamented condition, when by anneXing the islands we can worl their political and ultimately perhap: their intellectual and moral salvation
 Less convinced than the journal: which recommend annexation for an! or all of the reasons given are thos, which think we should go slow in tn,
 matter, or content ourselves with { coalirg station or two, or agree to al American or continental protectorate
 But even these papers are well nigl
 unanimous on one point. They are a
 one with the more radical journals il insisting that the disposition of the is lands is purely an American problem
 No dictation from Spain is permissible
 no interference from any cOntinenta
 power is to be brooked. To this ex
 tent there is a remarkable unanimit
 throughout the country. We have wol
 the islands by destroying the Spanis
 fleet on the first of May, and they ar
 ours to do with as we please. Tha
 we have not extended our actual juris
 diction beyond Manila bay is mer
 detail There is no force anywhere i
 the archipelago that could withstan
 Admiral Dewey and our army unde
 Merritt If Germany should seek t
 interfere, the result would be only
 further approach to unanimity anon
 the newspapers of the country that w
 must stay where we are. Let Admira
 von DiederlchS interpose an objectio
 to our occupation of Manila and W
 would be more inclined than ever t
 hold the city permanently. That
 human nature And more than tha
 we might teach the war lord, by S doing, a very important lesson tha would accrue in the future to the ad vantage of everybody concerned