The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-16
THE PHILIPPINE SITUATION.
[From the San FrancIsco GALL

IErOm the san FRANCISCO CALL
Self deception is bad policy for indi-
Viduals or nations. The native blood
shed in the Philippines has brought on
a situation that must cause the keenest
solicitude. It is useless to seek for evil
dence of who fired the first shot or
struck the first blow. Both have been
given and taken, and our relation hence
forth to the Fiipinos is that of conquer
or to the conquered. Our conquest is
not complete, but must be pushed TO
be effective. We have cleared space
around Manila. The poor huts of the
natives have been burned and all Shel-
ter for hostile force has been destroy
ed as far as the cannon and loren can
reach. We have been taught by the
example of Hastings and GIVE IN qeal-
ing with ASiatics, and by that OF Mara
koff in dealing with the Arab trlpeS-
What followed after Plassey must fol-
low now, for all that our arms leave
alive in the Philippines will be Aslat1c:
Our conquest must be garrisoned ana
every plantation and compound must pc
under military protection. we can noC
exchange the sword for the onHe
ment has saluted the gallantry or an
native people fighting for independence
on their own soil. Masaniello, La Roche-
jacquelin, Riel, Emmett, Toussalnt'
Simon Bolivar, Kossuth, Marco Boz
zaris, even Mana Sahib, as their several
stories were told or sung, inspired ana
thrilled the American heart In our
literature the hero, struggling Tor the
independence of his country, has been
a priced figure, and in our oratory ms
name has never failed to make afluehI
the fountain of eloQuence. For one nun
dred and twenty-five years the Amerl-
can spirit has been determined and nix
ed on that line of sympathy for all peo-
pie who aSpired to govern themselves.
That spirit created the Monroe doc
trine and was the leading impulse in our
declaration of war against Spain. Ehe
native Cubans aSpired to independence
They gasped on the point of a Spanish
range of vision and we ran to their
rescue. Cuban women were represented
as in arms for independence, and their
story, told in our senate, sent wave
of sympathy rolling across the con-
tinent. In our own revolution we had
one Mol Pitcher, who fought for our
independence, and she has been heroic
figure ever since.
The Philippine situation has changed
all this. MasanieIlo led the fishermen
again Neapolitan state oppression and
summoned La Vendee against the
Directory. RieI commanded the red
haired halfbreeds of the north against
Canada. Emmett died on the gallows
for rebelling against England. TOus-
saint captained his black destroyers
against France. Simon Bolivar stood
against Spain. KoSsuth def1ed Austria
Bozzaris and the Suliotes withstood
Turkey, and Mana Sahib attempted to
avenge Plassey against England. But
now we have reached the parting of the
ways A 1aT people. AMEN TO US III race,
has mistakenly fired a shot in behalf
of it's independence when its freedom
and lf-government conflict with our
newborn national policy They are
rebels against US, and where, in all the
wide world is there a country to SYM
pathize with their aspirations or to
mourn their women who fell in action,
sternly facing our deadly arms and
deadlier aim? Every other powerful
nation has done just as we are doing,
and to be consistent they applaud the
success of our arms. A light seems to
have gone out of the world. The
beacon to which the people who aspired
to be free could always turn has gone
out. National policy, the iron law, has
extinguiShed it.
In all history there is no other such
sudden and complete reversal of a ma
tional point of view. We have parted
company with the memory of the dead
who were trampled under the hard
hoofs of French horses in the Pala-
innate, and the martyrs who were swept
from the Carnatic by the bosom of
Hyder Ali, and contemplate with COM
posture a distant conquest of a protest
ing people, and without a pang count
the bullet holes in the slender bodies
of scores of dusky Moll Pitchers, who
fell in the trenches fighting for indie
pendence, but against our national
policy, and perhaps against our hope
of an increasing commerce.
1t was Halleck, an American, who
wrote
But, to the hero. when his sword
Is drawn in battle for the free,
Deaths voice sounds like a prophets
word,
And in its hollow tones are heard
The thanks Of millions yet to be-"
and, as it follows the flag, woe to those
who fire upon that emblem of profits.
NO MORE NONSENSE IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
From the New York Journal.
Aguinaldo has relieved US of all en-
barrassment in the matter of our deal
ings with the Philippines To the un-
provoked attack upon our forces at Ma
Mia, while we were exhausting every eff
fort to reach an amicable understanding
with the FilipinoS, and while our COM
mission of inquiry was actually on the
way, there can be but one answer.
Order must be restored in the Philip
pines The men who have taken our
forbearance for weakness must be
taught their mistake, American author
ity must be established at once, beyond
challenge, throughout the Archipelago.
Already Europe looks on with con-
temptuous amaZement at our seeming
ly helpless indecision. We could afford
to ignore that as long as we knew in
our own hearts that it was only the pa
thence of conscious strength and justice
that held us back from the appearance
of aggression on a people striving for
liberty. But if we permitted our troops
10 De 0eIAbeTdIeAN dSSduileO Will iii
punity we should forfeit not only the
regard of the world, but our own self
respect.
Aguinaldo has put an end to Ameri-
can uncertainty. He has shown his I'M
fitness to rule the Philippines. A leader
that lacks the self-control to refrain
from breaking the peace in the midst
of negotiations is not the sort of states
man to establish a stable government.
If we withdrew from the Philippines
now the native leaders would be fight
ing among themselves within months,
and all the colonizing powers of Europe
would be serambling for the islands.