The evening times., 1898-08-15
MONDAY. AUGUST Is, 1898.
That HaIf-and-HnIf Commission

The forthcoming peace commission
continues to form the chief subject of
general comment and conjecture. The
President does not seem to have made
up his mind as to whom to appoint
members of the tribunal, excepting
In the case of Judge Day, whose selec-
tion is matter of course. There are
some indications that Mr.. Mckinley
wishes he could shift responsibility in
the matter of naming commissioners,
even as his Administration attempted
to dodge responsible action on the Phil
ippine question by creating the COM
mission.
Neither the domestic nor foreign
press, nor yet the American people, can
see any proper reason why Mr.. Nc
kinley's mind should have not been
as thoroughly made up on the Philip
pine as upon the Cuban or Porto Rican
subjects. Before he consented to the
concession which Spain, France, Aus
tria, and the Papal Court unite in con-
STRUNG as an offer to surrender the
islands, he knew that the universal
sentiment OF the country was in favor
of keeping and defending them. He
also knew, because he had taken pains
to find out, that not first-class power
would offer the least objection to our
full possession of the archipelago.
In view of these facts it seems
strange to millions of American citi-
Zens that the President should have not
only shunted the whole lsubject over
to a commission so constituted as to
preclude a decision favorable to the
United States, but made that prospect
doubly certain by practically filing a
''nolle prosequi'' in the Philippine case
in advance.
Mr.. McKinley's friends still declare
that he is willing enough to keep the
islands if the country insists, and that
he had not made up his mind when
he offered peace, and everything in the
East but one small Ladrone, and
coaling station at Manila, to Spain!
If his mind was unsettled at the time,
the intellects of those who procured his
action were extremely level. The Phil
ippine open door, and the peace COM
mission half Spanish, may have repre-
sented Mckinley incertitude, but they
equally denoted and registered a most
vigorous understanding and purpo Sc on
the part of Archbishop Ireland and the
advocates of the Rothschild interest.
We do not wish to say that either
Monsignor Ireland or George F. Ed
munds is the devil, nor yet that the
American people are the deep sea, but
to mix metaphors a bit, out of COM
pliment to the Emerald prelate's birth
place--between the two stools, the
pigeon appears to have come to the
ground. In his desire to avoid being
driven to decision himself, and wish
ing to please influences to which he is
under obligations for political aid or
financial comfort in 1896. the inexp.ica-
BILE half-and-half commission probably |
found its birth. We say inexplicable, be- |
cause it is plain that it cannot be ex-
pected to reach any conclusion If its |
Spanish and American members are |
equally insistent upon their divergent |
national interests. We must conceive |
an American traitor or a European |
arbitrator to find any way in which |
definite results are to be attained. |
There Ire people who begin to think
that one or other of these means to
the same end may have been arranged
for,