The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-07-29
The Philippines-Interest nnd Duty
Bid Us Retain Them.

The Philippines-Interest ond Duty
Bid Us Retain Them.
The suggestion made in certain quarters
that we should give back the Philippines
to Spain, keeping only one or two coaling
stations as the beggarly fruits OF DBwEY's
victory, will not be accepted by the Ameri-
can people. A peace concluded on that
condition would not be consonant with
American ideas of common sense, or Of
honor, or of duty.
Such n peace would be counter to com.
mon sense. No reasonable American would
have dreamed six months ago of paying
several hundreds of millions of dollars for
Porto Rico. Yet the wal has already cost
us many hundred millions of dollars, an
outlay which the bankrupt Treasury of
Spain would be utterly unable to make
good in the form of a money indemnity.
1t is absurd. therefore, to say that, in the
matter of territorial acquisition, we should
content ourselves with the small island of
Porto Rico. 1t Is true that we entered
upon the contest for purposes of hui
manity, and we shall carry out those
purposes by assuring to the former
subjects OF Spain peace, order and civil
liberty; but it is equally true that Spain
should reimburse us for our expenditure,
seeing that the responsibility for the re-
course to arms rests wholly upon her
shoulders. There would nave been no war
had she needed our remonstrances against
the devastation Of Cuba and the treatment
of the reconcentrados. 1t is entirely the
fault of Spain that we have been forced to
make immense pecuniary sacrifices and to
risk the lives of our citizens In battle and
by pestilencc. When terms of peace are
discussed. the extent Of those sacrifices
must not be moderated, and a full equiva.
lent for them should be exacted. II the
Philippines are withheld, it Is impossible
for Spain to offer us a full equivalent.
1t is obvious that the cession of Porto
Rico and of one or two coaling stations
would be n derisory return for our outpour.
ing of blood and treasure. ,..
The remuneration of the Philippines
would involve a breach of the national
honor. Having proclaimed Spain unfit to
govern colonial dependencies, and having
ourselves come forward in the role of lib
orators of the oppressed. we cannot refuse
to the inhabitants of LuZon and it's sister
Islands the deliverance from rapacity and
cruelty which we shall give to the inhabi.
tants Of Cuba and Porto Rico. Should We
do the one thing and not the other, it would
be said that our professions of horror at the
barbarities perpetrated by Spain in her
American colonies were largely prompted
by q keen perception of the commercial and
strategic value of those colonies to our.
selves. Not only, moreover, on general
Nrinat~Iaa n ~ ,ra IA,-l a. f..z Al NJ .
pines as well as the Antilles from the yoke
of Spain we have also contracted specific
obligations to the insurgents in Luzon,
obligations not to be made light of be.
cause their leader, AGUINALDo, NAV
have committed some mistakes. We can
excuse him for exhibiting much anx.
iety and mlsgiving, when we keep In
view the suspicious conduct of the Ger.
man squadron at Manila and remember
that some months elapsed after the de.
struction Of the Spanish fleet at Cavite
before the arrival of n sufficient number of
American troops to turn the naval victory
to military account. 1t would be a shame.
ful act to encourage, as we nave encour.
aged, the uprising on the part of AGUINAt.
DOS followers, who, practically, constitute
all the Christianized natives of Luzon, and
then to abandon them finally to Spanish
vengeance.
1t may be said that we are not restricted
to the alternative of keeping the Philip.
pines ourselves or of replacing them under
Spanish despotism. There is a third
course, it may be argued, that, namely, of
transferring the Philippines to Japan or to
some European power, Great Britain, for
example, which could be trusted to give
them the blessings of good government.
Not thus easily can We shift the response.
bilities of conquest and discharge the duty
ofsubserving, so far as in US lies, the general
peace of the Far East. France, Germany
n Russia will not protest against our re.
tentIon of the whole Philippine archIpel.
ago, but they will fight sooner than see the
balance OF power upset on the western
shores OF the Pacific by a conveyance OF
the islands to Japan or to Great Britain.
The Governments of st, Petersburg, Berlin,
and Paris do not vehemently object to
the acquisition Of a coign of vantage
in the Far East by the United States,
In view of our interest In China's trade,
which. large even now, Is destined to
remarkable expansion. They would see
with some approach to equanimity our n.
nexation of the Philippines and also OF the
smaller insular groups, the Carolines and
tha I,adrOneA which. with Hawaii oon.