Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-12-02
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Spirit Of the Dress.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
WE ARE AFRAID.

The heroic LIMOGES are again lombard
ing 1.-THE timid souls who are not yet
fully convinced that the strength, glory
and dignity of the republic will not be
immeasurably promoted by the annex
alton of the Philippine archipelago. with
such conundrums as these: "Who but
the coward is afraid: Isn't tins the
omnipotent and omniscient Yankee
nation? Can't we lick all creation? Isn't
it our business to civiize and Christian
ize all the heather of the earth and get
rich in doing it? Isn't the hand of
Providence reckoning us to conquest?
Isn't destiny hauling us at lightning
speed to dominion and power in the
East? Aren't we Anglo-SaXOns and
therefore ordained, with the consent of
England, to rule the world? Hasn't the
Almighty tossed the Philippines into
our lap and babe us keep them and de-
velop them and make them bright and
shining stars in the crown of the
Goddess of Liberty: Who but the
coward is afraid? Who but the traitor
obiects?"
Well, we don't know. We do not
intend to be treacherous and we hope we
are not cowardly, but we confess we are
afraid; so much so that we sincerely
wish the Philippines belonged to Eng
land or Germany and were not the
subject of controversy in the meetings of
the peace commission at Paris or in the
American congress. We have got them
and we shall probably be obliged to
keep them. We cannot give them back
TO Spain and there is little evidence that
their people are or can be made capable
of self-gOverument. But we are by no
means sure they are acquisitions to be
thankful for. We read of the great fer
tility of their soil, the richness of their
mineral resources and the extent of their
forests, and we allow that these might
be worth having if they were situated
within reach and came free of incum-
brances; but we connot forget that they
are 5000 miles away from our capital {;
that their climate Is deadly, and above
all that the population consists of about
a million MOngOlians and Malays and
seven or eight millions of savages, who
live in the most primitive way. with
little shelter or clothing, subsisting
upon what grows from the ground about
them and what they take from the
forests and ocean; who are ignorant, vile
and cruel; who buy less than dollars
worth per capita each year; who know
nothing of civilized government, and
who are in all probability incapable of
being civilized; and we ask, as did
Bishop Potter, not "What shall we do
with them?" but "What will they do
with u.s."
We read the semi-olficial statements
that it Will require an army of 10000
men, costing 40 million annually, and
navy that will cost % millions annually,
to hold these people in subsection and
keep them from butchering each other,
and such foreigners as may go there, and
that there must be enormous OUTLAWS for
all kinds of improvements and for the
cost of administration, and we question
whether we can get our money back
whether, indeed, all the trade we shall
secure would square the account If it
was all profit. We read in letters from
Manila that a sixth of our army is on the
sick list; that number of our soldiers
die every day, and that the most earnest
desire of those who are yet alive is to
get away and stay away; aud we fail to
see how others to take their places can be
secured without a CONSUMPTION, from
which may heaven deliver us. We have
been taught that our government rests
upon the theory that all its subjects are
free and equal and we read in our copy
of the National Constitution that "the
citizens of each state and territory shall
be entitled to all privileges and i'm
munities of citizens in the several states,
that all persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the iu-
rsdiction thereof, are citizens of the Uni
ted States and of the state Cor territory
wherein they reside, and that states are
prohibited from abridging the privileges
and immunities of citizens of the United
States that the right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by
any state, on account of race, color or
previous condition of servtude; that all