Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-11-04

l
| CONQUERED COLONIES.
New York, November ga mass
meeting was held in Chickering Hall
| tonight in the interests of the indie
pendent State ticket of the Citizens
Union. Hon. Jay Chapman, who open
| ed the meeting, was bitter in speak
ing of Col. Roosevelt.
He has appealed for votes in mill
tary uniform" he said, trying to make
| capital of it, | do not mind his boyisn
| campaign. l do not blame him for
| wrapping himself in the American flag.
He really thinks he is the flag. When
| Roosevelt lends his aid to cover up AL
! gers scandals, he is trying TO white
! y ash the most scandalous thing of the
nation. l charge him with this in his
silence"
R. Fulton Cutting, chairman of the
| meeting, said:
"Algerism and civil service reform
are enough alone to demand a thir:l
party. With the gold and silver issues
we have clear platform"
Carl Shurz was the principal speaker
Mr.. Shurz opened with tribute to
the late Col. Warning, who died las:
week from yellow fever contracted Ill
Havana. He then entered upon dis
cussion of the question of territorial
expansion, saying that while the cam
paign should have been waged on State
issues, Col. Roosevelt had forced the
annexation issue by declaring that his
election would be an Endorsement OF
the policy of keeping all the conquered
territory.
The adoption of that policy, said Mr..
Schurz, would be fatal to the republic.
| morally. Congress, in order to satisfy
the consciences of our people and to
propitate the opinion of mankind for
that it was to be a war in behalf of OF
pressed Cuba, war of humanity and
| liberation and not of aggrandizement.
President Mckinley had already de-
clared in a manner equally solemn that
annexation by force is not to ne
thought of, because, according to our
code of morals, it would be criminal ag-
gression."
Our first duty is to keep our word
to do honestly that which we promised,
to preserve the character of our Span
ish war as war of humanity and not
of ACKNOWLEDGMENT, to abstain from
that criminal aggression which has
been denounced by President Mckinley
himself and thus to maintain our ma
tional honor. Our paramount duty is
not to foreign country or people, but
to this republic and to the 100000
who inhabit it. Our duty is soberly to
| consider how the annexation to
| the United States of the
Spanish possessions or any of
them will affect, not merely
| the interests of the inhabitants there
of, but the character and the welfare
of those seventy-fve millions of our
countrymen.
The annexation policy will bring in
to our political system millions of
| Spaniards, Creoles, Negroes, Malays,
Chinese, japanese, F'ilipinos, Tagals
| and the savage tribes whose names we
have yet to learn and thus thrust up
on us race problems compared with
| which those we already have on our
| hands signify little.
But am told that we must have new
markets for our products. Can we not
get the markets of these countries I'M
| less we annex them? Do we not sch
nearly a thousand millions worth of
| goods year to countries we have not
annexed? And is not one European
customer worth much more than
twenty Asiatics? And can we not get
the Philippine markets without annex
ing the countries behind them? But
now l am asked, do we owe no duty
to the population we have liberated
from the Spanish yoke?
Well, whatever responsibilities may
have been put upon us by destruction
of the Spanish fleets and by the cap
ture of Santiago and Manila, will any
sane person seriously maintain that
the duty this republic owes to the peo-
pie of the Spanish colonies is para
mount to the duties it owes to its own
seventy-five millions of people and to
the untold millions that will occupy
this land in the future? Must we, in
order to do our duty to the Creoles and
the Tagals, break our solemn pledge
that this was to be war of humanity
and not of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT? Must
we, by annexation, make all those in
congruous races. the Spanish negro
mixture and the Malays, the Fiiipinos,
the Tagals, the Chinese and nameless
savages, citizens of the United States
and thus poison with the tropical vir-
us our body polite? Must we invest
nominations that cannot GOVERN Them