The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-08


the Filipinos have not laid down their
arms and the third one says that while
he does not know what is going to be
done, that he has implicit confidence in
the President. UIaughter)
ut is hard to get a man to defend
Imperialism, but when you get man
who has the audacity to defend an inn
perial policy you will find that he will
make one of three defenses; l have
never heard but three defenses of impe-
rialism. The first is the financial argu-
ment; that there is money in 1T. The
second is the religious argument; that
God is in it, The third is the political
argument, that we are i'll it and can't
get out of it. 0aughter) These are
the only three reasons that | have ever
heard given.
Let me say a word about expansion.
My friends, | don't like to discuss
great question on the low plane of dol
lars and cents If | were to ask you what
you thought of the commandments,
Thou shalt not KILL would you get
lead pencil and paper and try to- figure
up the amount to be stolen and the
chances of being caught before You
would give me an answer? To me 1t
seems an absurdity for man to begin
to calculate in dollars and cents the
wisdom of an imperial policy.
"In 1896 they denounced the Chicago
platform. Some ministers denounced it.
One Eastern minister said that the plat
form was written ill hell; another said
that the devil wrote it and the last re-
mark | felt to be little personal be-
I l.,
do not believe that a single plank ylo-
lates the ten commandments or the
moral law and if you can show me
plank in that platforms which violates
any of the commandments or any moral
precept | am willing to abandon ut and
never again advocate it. But there Is
no such plank in that PLATFORM; no mat
| ter what YOU may think of that plat
form the party's position upon the ques-
tions are set forth so that no Republican
can urge that about it. The position IS
| this: That this country can not afford
to- sell its birthright for a mess of pot
age. But if there is any Republican
here who can not climb upon that high
platform | will suggest a low one that
he ought to be able to climb on, and
that is that you ought never do wrong
unless il does pay. And then | challenge
YOU TO show that it does pay to carry on
an imperial policy. Any man who de
| fends imperialism from the low stand
point of dollars and, cents must show
how much it will cost to conquer eight
million Malays seven thousand niles
away from our shores, scattered over one
| thousand two hundred islands. living un-
der a tropical sun and fighting in the
protection of the jungle. You must show
how long it will take and how much 1t
will cost in men and i'll money. and
| then YOU have got to place an estimate
upon the lives that will be SACRIFICED.
You tell me there is money in 1t!
What is the life of an American sol
dier worth? Conceive, if you cam of
| the man who would put money value
upon the men of his neighborhood and
| then estimate there was money IN 1t.
wild yells.) How much will 10 cost!
| You can not tell, but if you could estl-
mate i'm dollars and cents the amount 1t
would cost to conquer and reconquef,
YOU would tlfen have to estimate what
YOU are going to get back, the time III
which YOU are going to get back more
| than you spent and then YOU would have
| to find out who is going to get the
money that you will take out in return
for the money you spent. If you do
| this. YOU would find that the people that
nav the taxes would spend what YOU
spend and the people who run the syn
dicates would get back what you get
| back.
This Nation has been run for the
| last ten or fifteen years III the inter
est of the syndicates. They have had
rich picking in this country and | am
not willing to change our form of gov
ernment in order to give these syndlcates
pastures green across the ocean. / am
not willing that the people of this coun-
| try should be bound with an enormous
army and with the expenses of imperial
| ism in order that Il few syndicates may
be permitted to organize banks, and cleo
! tric light plants, and street railways and
factories i'm the Orient, and if any man
| tells YOU that there Us going to be proht
there | want him to know that it VIII
he capital and not labor that will go
to the Philippine islands. Not an Am
erican citizen will go there to work for
his living. If an American citizen goes
| there it will be to work for somebody
/ else VINO HNeS over lleIe IIlcy VIII
send capital there, not labor, and every
dollar of capital that goes out of this
country to the Philippines lessons by just
so much the capital in this country
| to develop this country and give em-
ployment to American laborers. Not
only does it mean this, but it also means
| that it will open in this country labor
to the cheap competition that comes
| from the Orient.
I'VE decided that the Chinese were not
good enough, when they wanted to come
| in, but our Republican friends want to
make the Filipino come when he does not
want to come. If we made laws to eX-
| clude a few Chinese, should we reach
out and force these people there to come
in? You tell me that country will fur
nish a home for our surplus population.
! | tell you that you have not studied the
| experience of other nations. Here is
| Jamaica not far from our shores with
all the blessings of an Anglo-Sax dom
ination, and yet there are 100000 black
people there and only 14,000 white peo-
pie Java, under The Netherlands for
300 years. has 25,000000 brown people
and less than 10000 of white people.
| . IL. xxyif fhpis