The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-18
OPPOSED TO EXPANSION.
An Argument Against the Annexn~
ton of the Philippines.

Ex-senator George F. Edmunds. In a let
ter to Ex-Governor Stewart, of Vermont,
says: Before the war with Spain, I take it
that nine-tenths of the intelligent people Of
the United States would have thought it
bordering on madness to have taken those
islands into our domain. Their population
is almost entirely what may fairly be called
savage, and absolutely incapable of any
thing that civilization would call self-gov-
eminent. And if their inhabitants were as
peaceable as the best of other tropical coun-
tries, they would still be (as all experience
has proved incapable of governing them
selves. Our only motive for their acquisi-
ton, therefore, must be of material advan-
tages supposed by some to flow from the
islands and their trades.
We get all the products of the island now
that we wish for, and on the same terms
that other nations do If we take them the
cost will be precisely the same. unless we
adopt the ancient colonial policy of Great
Britain and some other nations in control
ling their trade exclusively and allow il 10
be carried on only in ur.own ships. In that
case retaliation will certainly follow, and
our ships and goods will be excluded in
like manner from the colonial possessions
of the great manufacturing and trading
powers, which would leave the balance of
disadvantages vastly against us.
In a business point of view we must take
into consideration the cost of governing the
islands. The cost cannot, in all human prob
ability, be met by the taxation of the in
habltants to any considerable extent. Ma
ture supplies them with substantially all
the food and clothing they require, and
they are, of course, indisposed to labor or
thrift. If we take them we must govern
them by external power and not through
any autonomy of their own. This means
large and expensive civil list, governors,
councillors. administrators, officers Of JUS
tlce, and so forth and so forth, who must,
IN the main. be paid out of the treasury of
the United States The climate is of course
very unWholeSome for Americans and the
death rate of our officers there would be
very large. 1t will also require an American
army OF defense and for the preservation of
peace and order of many thousands of men,
and an American navy of six or more ships
and probably two thousand men, all ex-
posed. like the civilians, to the constant
hostility Of the climate, to say nothing of
that Of the Inhabitants of most, if not ALL
of the Islands. Are we, under such circurn-
stances, to force a government upon them?
The present condition between ourselves
and Spain in regard to the Islands is, as
the protocol of armdStice distinctly shows,
that we have not obtained the islands. and
that all our rights that were recognized
there were those of holding the bay and
city OF Manila and their environments until
peace should be established. What was to
be done with the whole group was left for
negotiations, which our commissioners al
Paris are now engaged in. If, then, we are
to get them without the cession of Spain,
we must do it by force of further war
arms against the vast majority of the in
habitants, who, so far as / know, have
United States
Are we, then. to attempt to force civiliza-
ton and Christian religion upon them as
MOhammed made his proselyteS. This of
course would be expressly contrary to our
Declaration of Independence and to the prin-
GIpies upon which the government of the
United States rests How many lives of
their sons do Vermont and the other States
of our solid and homogeneous Union wish to
sacrifice to accomplish it, and how many
more annually hereafter in governing these
islands? Our few months experience at
Manila and in nearby Cuba and Porto Rico
should make US awake to these questions.
or even tempts US to this sort of i'm
perialism?" Let the advocates of such an
grounds for such a course. Congress has
solemnly pledged the national honor and
faith that we had no purpose Of territorial
ACKNOWLEDGMENT, even as to Cuba. only one
hundred miles from our shores. 1t is true.
the victor in war is entitled to indemnity;
but the victor who has made war for
humanity has no right to be extortionate
because he is strong. The cesSion of Porto
Rico and one of the Ladrones for a coalng
western coast to Asiatic ports is ample for
every expense of the war that can be
measured by money value. Even Porto
rico would be, as part of the United
States, an injury to us in the long run, but
for its situation in connection with the
Nicaragua canal. Already some newspaper
writer's have opened the question of it's adj
mission a State of the Union with SEN
ators having an equal voice in making laws
for this country with that of the senator's
from Vermont or New York, or any other
State. The sober minded inhabitants OF
each of the States should consider the enor-
nous danger of introducing such elements
and such power into the Senate, where all
our States stand equal. and which. as John
Adams described it, is 1.-The sheet anchor of
the Republic" and the only security of State
T. t.