The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-17
FREE SPEECH IN ENGLAND.

John Bass, special correspondent for
Iiarper's Weekly in the Philippines,
has written from Luzon as follows:
sLuzon presented very desoiate pic
thre as / passed through the charred
ruins OF villages and former homes. Near
~ all the people had fed. Occasionally
woman with her children or an old
man. sat disconsoiately near a heap of
smouldering ashes; as rode through mile
after mile OF this deSola1on The conclus-
Jon forced Itself upon me that our gov
eminent, with its weak, vacilfatory policy
and want of tact. and Aguinaldo ana MS
followers would be called to account for
all this des Lruction when history, in cold
blood. shat write the u nth
Other Correspondents have painted
darker pictures of death and devasta-
ton than this. The official reports
show lamentabie loss OF lives on our
own side and a slaughter of natives
so Wholesale and horrible that every
man. woman and child in this country
not in the employ of Hanna prays for
an early completion of the awful work
or 4 cessation of hosu!ities.
In view Of these scenes of fire, of IA
lime ana of carnage what if some Am
erioan citizen should rise and ask-.'ob-
serving the wide and general desolation
of fields unclothed and brown; of vege-
tation burned up and extinguished; of
villages depopulated and in ruin; of
churches unIoofed and perishing; of
reservoirs broken down and dry"-this
American should ask, What has thus
laid waste to this beautiful and pop
ulous land; what monstrous madness
has ravaged it with widespread war;
what desolating foe; what civil dis
cords: what disputed succession: what
religious ZEAL what tabled monster has
stalked abroad and. with malice and
mortal enmity to man. withered by the
grasp of death every growth of nature
ard humanity, all means of delight,
and each original principle of national
existence? The answer would have
been that it came from none of these
causes.
Sheridan was free to arraign the En-
elish government away back in the
despotic times Of tyrannical George
III, and these are the words he used
TO describe the injustice of his country
towards the natives of India. Would
Sheridan have as much freedom of
speech under the reign OF Mark Hanna
in these latter days of a century Of
progress in the freest government on
earth? wouldn't every imperialist in
the land denounce him as a copper
head" and try to yoke him up with Ed
ward Atkinson?
Read again those descriptions of
What has marked the path of conquest
in the Philippines No desolating for
seign foe has ravaged these lands and
depopulated these villages. No domes
TIC broiis, No disputed succession, No
religious zeal, No poisonous monster!
No affiiction of Providence. which,
while it scourged, cut off the sources of
resuscitation, No, this damp of death
Is the mere effusion Of our national
amitv."
Thus spake Sheridan. one of the
greatest of English orators and states
men. Nor was his name or fame con-
aigned 30 obloquy or oblivion because
he took this stand in opposition to
policy pursued by his government.
Even George the Third permitted men
To speak their minds century and a
quarter ago. Mark Hanna's miniOns
would have treated Sheridan to a coat
of tar and feathers, even had they re-
Trained from hanging him to the near
est telephone pole. as a traitor to the
administration