The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-04
THE FIELD OF DIPLOMACY
SPAIN WILL REJECT THE PHILIP
PINE PROPOSITION.
The United States Has Assumed n Great
Responsibility In the Islands.
Compelled to Take All.

united states ana Spanish peace COM
m~issioners left the definite limitations
of the protocol and entered upon the
wide field of diplomacy. where an open
question is TO be decided. Both COM
missions realize that the area is ample
enough for some m~aneuvering, though
on the American side the tendency is to
evolutions more compact than those OF
the S~paniards. Both would undoubted-
ly be gratified to each a mutual con-
clusion without compulsion. At Mon
days joint session the American COM
missioners laid down a proposition in
two parts: r..
First-That the United States should
take over the Philippines entirely.
Second-That in so doing they should
reimburse to Spain the sum of her per-
manent and pacific expenditure i'm the
Philippines. The logic of the situation
compelled he Americans To make the
first move. .,~
Having heard the American PROPOSE
ton. the Spaniards might Immediately
have declined IL as they certainly will
do at to-morrow's session. Whether
they will accomplish the refusal with
a unite proposition has not been def
nitely ascertained, though at a late hour
this evening that course seems improb-
dDle. Inc result Will De tndt the COn-
missions will retire from confronting
positions until one or the other shall
have reformed its mes for the next
meeting. which will probably occur next
week. II the Spanish ministers enter
tain a hope that after the elections in
the United States the American COM
missioners will relax their demands as
to the Philippines. they have not utter
ed IL here for the public ear. nor has
IN nxtAfn1 hnnn Gnf1 or 1nDa hr anxv
member of the United States commits
sion to warrant such a hope.
The American commissioners came to
Paris with no greed for Philippine ter
ritory. The fact is. the commissioners
have felt that the conditions precedent
render the letting go of the Philippines
as difficult as their rentention. There is,
for instance. the question of the future
of Aguinaldo. his chiefs and followers.
The Philippine leader and his immedi-
ate associates in the insurrection ac-
cepted exile and over half a million dol
lars at the hands OF Spain as an In
ducement to cease their rebellion. They
went to China, but they were brought
back to the Philippines on board a
United States warship. Aguinaldo re-
ceived from Admira Dewey several
thousand stands of arms and was put
ashore as an ally of the United States
In the war against Spain.
The insurgent leader and his chiefs
have forfeited their lives. Should the
United states return the Philippines to
Spain, Aguinaldo and his fighting fol-
lowers must be surrendered to death or
taken away by the United States and
the American commissioner feel that
the tr~ansplanting would be as severe
toward them as would be ~impracticable
from the point OF view of the United
States.
The American commissioners have
not been unmindful of the fact that
circumstances, partly of their shaping,
ave imposed upon the United States a
conservative responsibility of the Phil
ippines and that either this must be
forsaken or a larger one assumed.
They have believed, too. that before the
nations of the world. they have as
sumed the higher responsibility of the
stable control Of the entire group; n
with a sense of specific and general
obligation. they felt compelled to pro-
pose to take over all.
The correspondent OF the associated
press ascertains from Spanish sources
beyond question authentic that before
the Philippine question Is settled, the
Spanish commissioners will declare that
they are not here solely to save or to
gain all the money possible from the
United States. Senior Montero Rios.
president Of the Spanish commission.
ana ms colltagueS, waving any clasSi-
fcation Of the Spanish or colonial debts,
wiz point out that Spain has borrowed
on the collateral ~ her colonia reve-
nue.. They will concede that the ma
tional guarantee may have been added.
but that. for all the OF this
contention, the fact is irrelevant. IL
will then be frankly urged by her COM
missioners that Spain has pawned the
revenues OF the Philippines and OF
Cuba: that she did So in good faith to
her creditors. and this being true. that
she has no moral right TO give away
or r~e-hypothecate territory already
pledged.
s nor Rios will urge hat should
Spain take that course her creditors
might fairly charge her with defraud-
ing them. 20 save for herself the Caro-
lines. Canaries and Balearic Islands.
and 10 avoid possible damaee 10 the
peninsula The Spanish commissioners
viii protest that such a transaction