The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-09-07
The Views Of Peace Commissioner.

The views OF Mr.. Whitelaw Reid upon
the questions with which he will be
called upon to deal as member of the
Peace Commission is made clear in
well-reasoned article from his pen pub
lished in the Century Magazine for Sep
TENDER. The title of the article, "The
Territory with Which We are Threat
ened," will mislead the reader, for MIR.
Reid is o convinced annexationist, and
makes it clear that he does not regard
the extension of our domain as cal
amity. We say he is an annexationist.
That is made evident by his Century
article, but he is as far as possible from
being one of that class who cry aloud
for expansion with lingo fervor and
vacant mind. Mr.. Reid reaches bis
conclusions by candid reasoning, and
bases them upon considerations of Ma
tional duty, which afford us a sounder
moral justification than interest or in
cination. His position is summed up
in this language:
The candid conclusions seem inevitable that,
not as matter Of policy, but as necessity of
the position in which we find ourselves and as
matter of National duty, we must hold Cuba
at least for time, and till permanent gov
eminent is well established for which we can
afford to be responsible we must hold Porto
Rico and we may have to hold the Philippines,
No American who has an adequate
sense of the moral obligations we have
assumed will dispute Mr.. Reid's con-
clusion that we are bound in honor to
see to it that the government which re-
places Spanish rule in Cuba is better
than Spanish rule. If the Cuban PEG.
pie under our protection and tutelage
develop in time the capacity to set up
and maintain government of their
own for the stability and behavior Of
which we shall be willing to be held
accountable, then we shall willingly
withdraw from the island and under
the binding obligation Of the pledge of
congress, ''to leave the government
and control of the island to it's people"
when Specification" has been accom-
plished. But pacification must be a
fact before that pledge becomes op-
erative.
AS to Porto Rico there is, of course,
no open question. The island is ours
under the terms of the protocol. But
Mr.. Reid, writing before the protocol
was signed, declared that all the world
would expect us to hold it. Our posi-
ton for three-quarters of century has
been that Cuba and Porto Rico were
within our sphere of influence. To
abandon that position now "through
craven fear of being great" would be so
astonishing as to be grotesque.
What shall we do with the Philip
pines? That is the one really open
question that will come before the Peace
Commission. Mr.. Reid thinks we may
have to hold the islands. Certainly we
cannot give them back to Spain. "That
would put US in an attitude of nauseat-
ing national hypocrisy; give the lie to
all our professions of humanity in our
interference in Cuba, and prove that
our real motive was conquest. What
humanity forbade us to tolerate in
Cuba it would not justify US in re-
establishing in the Philippines" We
are in full accord with Mr.. Reid's rea-
sonable and consistent attitude in re-
spect to the Philippines as defined in
this extract from the Century article:
What, then, can we do with themp Shall
we trade them for something nearer home?
Doubtless that would be permissible, if we
were sure of thus securing for them better
government than that of Spain, and if it could
| al difficulties. But we cannot give them to
our friend and their neighbor Japan without
instantly provoking the hostility of Russia,
which recently interfered to prevent far
smaller Japanese ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. We can
not give them to Russia without greater in
justice to Japan; or to Germany, or to France,
or to England without raising far more trouble
than we allay. England would like us to
keep them; the Continental nations would like
that better than any other control, excepting
prefer it to anything save the absolute indie
pendence which they are incapable of main
tanning. Having been led into their possession
by the course of a war undertaken for the
sake of humanity, shall we draw geographic
cal limit to our humanity, and say we cannot
| because it is too much trouble and is too dis
| agreebep And, besides, there may be no
| profit in it,
Both war and diplomacy have many sur
prises; and it is quite possible that some way
out of our embarrassing possession may yet be
found, The fact is clear that many of our
| people do not much want it; but if way of re-
| linquishing it is proposed the one thing we are
bound to insist ON is that it shall be consistent
with our attitude in the war, and our honora-
| BILE obligations to the islands we have con-
| CURED and to civilization.
Readers of the Times are aware that
| this states our own position, and it is
the position of probably the great mass
of conservative and intelligent Ameri-
cans, who, while not blind advocates of
annexation, see no such perils in the
new policy as would justify us in re-
pudiating our National obligations.
With the objections to expansion
based on Constitutional ground, on the
Monroe doctrine, and on the warnings
of the fathers of the Republic, Mr.. Reid
deals briefly and sensibly. He is posi-
tive and emphatic in opposing the idea
that these new possessions can ever
come into the Union as States, having
an equal voice with other States in
shaping our National destinies. Here
is his plan of government for them:
With slight notifications the territorial form
of government which we have tried so success
fully from the beginning of the Union is adj
mirably adapted to such communities 1t Sc
cures local self-government, equality before
the law, upright courts, ample power for order
| nd -, Coz