The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-30

T may be safely affirmed that in the
power of so expressing patriotic
sentiments as to obscure great pub
lie questions and mislead the people
concerning them, Mr.. Mckinley has
had few equals and no superiors in the
United States. His ability in this line
has been frequently pointed out, and
his recent speech at Ocean Grove fur
nishes another striking example.
In that speech he is reported as say
ing: THE flag does not mean one
thing in the United and another in
has been some doubt in some quarters
respecting the policy of the government
in the Philippines. / see no harm IN
stating it in this presence. Peace first,
then with charity for all, establish a
government of law and order, protect
the well being of the people who will
participate in it under the stars and
stripes
That has a beautiful sound, and
doubtless it was received with thunders
of applause-but what doess it mean?
Does it mean that Porto Rico and the
Philippines are to become an integral
portion of the United States, with ulti-
mate statehood before them? If so, by
what authority does he speak? We
have been told, and he himself has said,
that congress alone has the power to
- +1,A ic
lands. But he is apparently now un-
dertaking to state it and decide it, for
he expressly so declares.
If this is not what he means, then
his statement is not a true one. for if
the status of those islands is not to be
the same as the present states and ter
ritories, it necessarily follows that the
flag will mean something different in
Porto Rico and the Philippines from
what it does in the United States.
But further: If this is what he
means, why did he not say it in his
first proclamation to the Filipinos in
stead of claiming the islands by right
of conquest and purchase? When this
claim was put forth we had peace"
with the Filipinos. Not only peace"
but we had their friendship to a degree
that may never exist again. If his
policy was to give them a government
of their own, or even the right of local
self-government, there was nothing on
earth to prevent him from saying so.
But he didn't say it. He said nothing
that even gave the faintest hope to
those people that they should ever
have any voice in their own govern
| ment
| Mr.. McKinleys original Filipino pro-
clamation, and his Ocean Grove speech,
| fairly interpreted, present about as
sharp a contrast as can easily be i'm
agined But does he really mean what
! his language seems to imply? If so,
why does he not say it officially to the
| Filipinos instead of wasting it upon the
| sounding surges at Ocean Grove?
The cold unrhetorical fact is that Mr.
| Mckinley did not state any policy al
all, and did not intend to. He was
simply playing upon the patriotic emo
tons of his hearers, without commit
ting himself to anything definite. His
utterance was oracular in the most ex'
treme sense. If he proceeds with his
policy as he has inaugurated it, sends
an immense army to the Philippines
slaughters tens of thousands of the ma
tives and a few thousand of our owr
men at the same time, spends hundred:
of millions of treasure, and finally
whips the people into submission, hi
can set up almost any kind of gov
eminent that suits his fancy, point tt
the American flag floating above it
and exclaim, this is what l meant a
Ocean Grove