Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-03-22
RYAN.

RYAN.
Mrs. III. Chapman returned Wednes-
day to her home in Minnesota, after an
extended visit with her parents here.
L. l.. Hoyt, of Manchester, was in
town Thursday.
Miss Katie O'Bren will have the clos
ing exercises of her school repeated
Wednesday evening, as the inclement
weather prevented the attendance of
some of the scholars on the last day.
N. Weller was transacting business at
Silver Creek, Saturday.
j. A. Thomas and Henery Gibbs were
passengers for the county seat Satur-
day.
Mrs. B. McKeon died at her home
near Coggon Saturday, after a lingering
and painful illness.
The Wilson Bros. have moved to
Monticello, where they will engage in
the livery business.
Owing to the bad weather the dance
which was to have been held on Friday
evening was postponed.
Our schools closed Friday for short
vacation.
o. II. Benson returned to his home in
Delaware Friday evening.
S. V. Haigh is spending his vacation
at the home of his parents in Almira.
N. Altmyer is recovering from the in
juries he received in the recent runaway
accident.
j. Meinhart, of Brown, Iowa, was In
town Thursday looking up location
for general store.
NJ. Duffy, of Ehler, was the guest of
friends here Friday.
Miss Julia G ark, of Willow Grove,
was stopping in town Saturday.
At the annual school election of the
independent district of Ryan, M. Bea-
com and G. Brauer were elected direct
ors.
The proposition to tax the district to
the amount of one thousand dollars for
the purpose of building an addition to
the school house, was defeated.
Miss Lenora Collins returned to Cedar
Falls Wednesday, where she is attend
ing school.
The much talked of joint debate be-
tween our literary society and the So
ciety at Ehler took place here in the op.
era house on Tuesday evening, March
14th. Notwithstanding the fact that
the night was very stormy and the roads
almost impossible, fair audience was
present. The president called the meet
ing to order and the evenings exercises
opened with selection by the Ryan
quartette. Several other musical select.
ions were on the program but had to be
omitted as the parties were not present
| E. E. Coakley was chosen chairman
and stated the question for debate
Resolved, that territorial expansion il
not constitutional nor advisable" Ry
an had the affirmative side of the ques
, ton and was represented by S. V. Haigt
and o. H. Benson, The negative-Eh
Ter, represented by w. II. Ehler and A
w. Savage. The speakers were restrict
, ed to twenty five minutes each, the at
firmative being allowed ten minutes tt
close the argument. S. V. Haigh Wa
the first speaker. He explained to the
audience that it was not the intention
of himself or his colleague to denounce
or find fault with the present admins
tration, which, he said, had been labor
ing under serious difficulties and disad
yantsges. Regarding the annexation
of the Philippines he thought the Uni
ted States would be better off without
them as our navy would have to be in
, creased to an equal footing with thu
best navies of the world, and large
standing army constantly kept on thost
islands to protect our own and foreign
interests there. He said he could no
see what advantages, commercial O.
otherwise, were to be gained to warran
this necessary, immense expenditure Of
money. He said that this question
should be submitted to vote of tn,
people and quoted passages from tn,
constitution to sustain his argument.
w. H. Ehler was the first speaker TO
the negative. He was confident tina
the Philippines would be a valuable ad
dition to the United States, and could
with very. little effort, be easily man
aged. He claimed that Aguinaldo wa
constantly exciting his followers to in
surrection to promote his own financia
bet terment, and that he was the caus'
of our present trouble with the native
in the Philippines. He thought tina
the commercial advantages to be gained
by our connection with these island
3 would far exceed our expectations, a
4 their climate was favorable for the pro
duction of tropical fruits, which wa
3 what our country stood in need of. ii,
said his opponent had far exceeded tn
amount of money in his estimate tina
would be necessary to maintain GOV
eminent in the Philippine Islands. HI
3 spoke of the several territories that w
have annexed in the past, all of which
4 had proven beneficial to our country.
D. III. Benson was the next speake
: for the affirmative. He proceeded tt
dissect the arguments offered by his OPP
ponent by showing that it was not con
3 stitutional to annex foreign territory
: and said he failed to zee where he hat
shown that it would be advisable. HI
referred to the Hawaiian Islands, stating
that they were of no benefit to us, much
less would be the Philippines. He
thought that the government of these
islands would be source of continuous
trouble and annoyance to us on account
of the distance separating us from them