The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-07

prove profitable or expensive, it will
certainly prove embarrassing to those
who still hold to the doctrines which
underlie republic.
Military rule is anita gonistic to our
theory of government. The arguments
which are used to defend it in the Phil
tppineS may be used to excuse it in the
United States. Under military rule
much must be left to the discretion of
the military governor and this can only
be justified upon the theory that the
governor knows more than the people
whom he governs, is better acquainted
with their needs than they are them
selves, is entirely in sympathy with
them and is thoroughly honest and I'M
selfish in his desire to do them good.
Such commission of wisdom, integrity
and love is difficult to find, and the Re
publican party will enter upon hard
task when it starts out to select suitable
military governors for our remote pos
sessions. Even if the party has abso-
lutte confidence in it's great political
manager, Senator Hanna, it must re-
member that the people of Ohio have
compelled him to serve them in the
United States and that inferior men
must be entrusted with the distribution
of justice and beneVo1ence among the
nations dark skinned subjects in the
Pacific.
IF we enter upon a colonial policy
we must expect to hear the command
silence issuing with increasing en-
phasis from the imperialists, when the
discussion of fundamental principles is
attempted in the United States. If
member of congress attempts to crft1-
else any injustice perpetrated by gov
eminent official against helpless peo-
pie he will be warned to keep silent un-
less his criticism encourage resistance
to American authority in the Orient.
If an orator, on the Fourth of July,
dareS to speak of inalienable rights or
refers with commentator to the man
ner in which our forefathers resisted
taxation without representation, he will
be warned to keep silent lest his utter
ances excite rebellion among distant
subjects. If we adopt a colonial policy
and pursue the course which excited
the revolution of 1875, we must muff1e
the tones of the old liberty bell and
commune in whispers when we praise
the patriotism of our forefathers.
I'VE can not afford to destroy the
declaration of independence; we can not
afford to erase from our constitutions,
state and national, the bill of rights;
we have not time to examine the
libraries. of the nation and purge them
of the essays, the speeches and the
books that defend the doctrine that law
is the capitalization of public opinion,
rather than an emanation from physical
power.
But, even if we could destroy every
vestige of the laws which are the out
growth of the immortal law penned by
Jefferson; if we could obliterate every
written word that has been inspired by
the idea that this is a government of
the people, by the people, and for the
people, we could not tear from the
heart of the human race the hope which
the American republic has planted
there. The impassioned appeal, give
me liberty or give me DEATH still echoes
around the world. In the future, as in
the past, the desire to be free will be
stronger than the desire to enjoy a
mere physical existence. The conflict
between right and might will continue
here and everywhere until a day is
reached when the love of money will
no longer scar the national conscience
nd Inf1cr ~ 1T
eous features of avarice behind the
mask of philanthropy