Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-10-10
DIPLOMACY, NOT THEORY
Japan Mail Gives Good Opinion on
Philippines.
Beautiful PlatitudeS Have Small Place In Pro-
greSSOf Nations Strong American Arm or
Full Spanish Control,


ty of opinion in the United States
as to what should be done with the
Philippines. On the one hand
there is a section of political
thinkers who insist upon the mo-
raj aspect of the question, and
argue that inasmuch as assurances
were originally given that Amer
lea had no intention of setting up
a permanent sovereignty over
those islands, justice demands that
those assurances should be full
filled. On the other hand there is
another section, probably much
more numerous and powerful, who
hold that In the region OF politics,
and international diplomacy, a
strictly moral standpoint IL mar
row scholatic sense, must be SUD
ordiuated to wider considerations.
Moral philosophy, they doubtless
think, if they do not ,sy, never
created an Empire. lndia, Canada,
Australia and the may other
scattered possessions of the or, al
Mother Country were not origin
ally founded upon the Technology
of the schools; aud strict sdher-
euce to the platItudes of mere
theorists from Aristotle down to
Herbert Spencer, would scarcely
have conduced 10 the rapid
material development OF the
Auglo- Saxon race. Nice rules
of equity are not applicable
when national interests are at
stake, and the doctrine of expedi-
ency is regarded as of moe i'm
portance than the criterion of
Iectitude. Could Give, and War.
rem Hastings have found much
guidance in Paley aud WarDur-
ton during crises in lndiaY and
are there less cogent reasons why
America should not seek expan
sion in the Orient, equally with
other Powersp Mr.. Morley's
periods apropos of English rule
IN India read very prettily, no
doubt, and as the Nation says, his
words have an evident applica-
ton, mutatis mutandis, to Anne
rica's own awkward position as
respects the Philippines. Bat It
Is apparent to anybody who has
studied public sentiment at home,
that the syllogIsms of philoso
phical Radicals carry little weight
with the masses of the people,
and that the latter are becoming
daily more and more conscious of
the necessity for the final abandon
ment of sentiment in the game of
diplomacy, so long as the nation
finds itself pitted against wholly
interruptions continental COAL
tons. First, says Mr.. Morley,
you push on into territories where
you have no business to be. Now,
there's the rub. If the last word
of national policy had been utter
ed by socialists like Owen and
there were no other reasouers but
be on the face of the EARTH. Mr..
Morley's premises might be ire
futable.
But to .eturn to the Philippines.
I Mr.. McKinley's tentative sugges
ton that Luzon only should be
retained does not commend itself
tostbe ma orIty. For as Spanish
newspapers have not been SLOW to
see and to point out ian intolera-
bic situation would at once arise
if the United S,at-s took simply
that island or a part of it, On the
the other side any line Of demar
cation that might be drawn the
native would be in chrouic revolt.
ID ference in aGm uistration
would arouse jealou-es and blck-
erings which would make the last
state of the islands worse than the
first. How could Que system of
taxation, one law of personal
rights, one military service, be en-
forced upon ignorant men on Que
side of an imaginary liue and au
other on the other ?" If the
United States take Luzon and
keep the door of trade opeu on it
while the Spanish maintain their
old monopolistic tariff on the
other islands, what constant fric
ton and clashing and upheaval
would surely result. "Far better
say that the Spanish press, for
Spain to give up every thing and
abolish her colonial office entirely,