The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-08-12
he OPPOSES COLONIES

Supreme Court Justice Brewer Says We
Should Not Add to Our Domain.
Justice David ]. Brewer of the Uni
ted States Supreme Court, has given
out the following interview declaring
against the annexation of the Philip
pines, Porto Rico and Cuba, and
against territorial expansion or an An
glo-American alliance:
81 think we may have to take pos
session of Cuba, Porto Rico and the
Philippines as a war measure and for
the purpose of getting indemnity. I
should look upon all save Cuba sim
ply in the same light as If / held a
mortgage upon a mans farm. would
foreclose that mortgage, not because /
wanted to take the farm, but for the
reason that l wanted the farm to sell
in order to raise the money. | do not
see how Spain will ever be able to pay
us an indemnity, and so | would take
her real estate. l think it is consist
ent with our policy, and 1t is certain
ly necessary that we should keep Cuba
for awhile and have an army there in
order to maintain good order. There
are more than a quarter of million
people ON the island, and it will take
some time TO get a stable government,
and until they do, I think, as matter
of humanity, that we should keep a
force of troops there to preserve or
der. When we have demanded pos
- -, ~Ja fry
for the payment of indemnity, and
have kept Cuba for the sake OF order,
! think we should then let them go.
81 do not believe in colonial expan-
sion at all. 1 think Hawaii stands in
different circumstances. My objection
to colonial expansion is twofold. You
take the Philippines with from 6,000,-
900 to 100000 of people, and Cuba
with more than 250,000 and Porto Rico
l do not remember the number, but
there is but one way to manage those
people and that is by force, just as
England manages Egypt, South Afri-
ca and India to a great extent Their
Government over these colonies is ar
bitrary, despotic, you may call it, but
they appreciate the necessity of good
government and govern wisely, but
for all that it is not a government Of
the people l do not see how we could
initiate that kind of colonial govern
ment without changing our theories of
government OF course we could gov
ern them; that would not be a physi>
cal impossibility, but in order TODD so
we must change our theories of gov
eminent
I'm the territory we have hitherto
taken into our government we have
introduced territorial system of gov
eminent, a territorial legislature, or
Government of the people. do not
think that that can be done with those
people, and 1 think it will be introduce
ing a new system of government in
this country. Again, think it would
compel an unnecessary increase in our
army. 1 do not know but that some
increase is needed. We would be
bound to have a large increase in our
navy and do not like the idea of this
country considering herself military
power. / think if we had a large army
and a large navy we would be get
ting into trouble with other nations.
It is human nature for an army officer
and a navy officer to want promotion,
and if it does not come rapidly enough
he wants a war to bring it about
"In so far as the Philippines are
concerned, especially it seems to me
that it would be a black eye to the
Monroe doctrine. When we said that
the European nations must not take
possession of any territory in this con-
tinent it was sort of implied declara
ton that we would not take any pos
sessions in their continent. If we
would reach out into Asiatic countries
and take the islands there it would
look as though we could not say any
thing if European nations reached
over here and take possession of terri
tory.
"There is another thing in this con-
nection l want to talk about. I have
seen in a good many religious papers
and heard in few sermons, that be-
cause we have the best civilization in
the world it was our destiny and our
Christian duty to reach out and make
other nations accept our civilization.
1t seems TO me that the best way we
could make our civilization of value to
others is by example and not by force.
We could make it valuable to the
world great deal better by example
than by appropriating territory.
IF it had been proposed in Congress
the LIST of January to appropriate the
Philippine Islands, Porto Rico and
Cuba, I believe it would have been
voted down four to one. Yet the war
has developed such conditions that
great many men in Congress as well
as out of it are beginning to think that
colonial expansion is before US. There
is very different sentiment in Con-
gress than there was at that time"