The Advocate and news., 1899-03-22

ships there and sunk nearly all OF tnem'
Those that he didn't sink he captured.
That was the battle Of Manila that you
heard so much about"
eyes, know about that"
"Then he helped the Bilipinos; those
are the people who live on the islands
he helped them to fight the Spaniards." :"
"But / thought the Filipinos were
fighting our soldiers"
"Not at that time. When our soldiers
first when over the Filipinos were sup
posed to be our friends"
what did they get mad aboutT
"Well, after our soldiers captured the
city of Manila and we asked Spain to
give us the Philippine islands these ma
tives began to be suspicious. You see,
they had been fighting Spain for years
and now that the Spanish soldiers were
about to be driven out Of the islands they
wanted to take hold and run things for
themselves"
"They wanted to be like the Cubans,
didn't they?"
"Thats 1t, exactly. When we went
into the war we promised the Cubans
that we were going to help them drive
out the Spaniards and then protect them
until they could start government OF
their own. But we didn't promise the
FilipinOs anything Of the kind"
"Then the reason we didn't get Cuba
was that we promised the Cubans that
they could keep the country for them
selves?"
1--WE promised that we would look af-
ter them until they could get settled
down and recover from the war"
"Well, why didn't we promise the Fill
pinos that. too?"
"There was really no occasion for that.
They didn't begin to ask any favors OF
us until after the war began, and you see
we had spent so much money that we had
to get something out Of 1t. The Spaniards
were not At to govern the Philippines,
and so, in the interest of humanity and
to help the prosecuted Filipinos, we COM
PEELED Spain to turn the islands over to
u.s."
what was the matter with Spain?
Didn't Spain know how to govern the
Fllipinos"
"No, these Filipinos had been fighting
Spain for years, trying to get an indie
pendent government of their own"
"And now they are fighting our sol
diers, aren't they?"
"Yes, but that's because they have
been misled by their generals. These
generals have told the natives over
there that instead of getting their lib
erby they are simply going to have
new master in place of the old one. They
think that the United States Is going to
rule over them now, the same as Spain
did before"
"Well, that isn't so, is it?"
Certainly not. Spain Is corrupt and
dishonest power, while the United States
is a progressive and humane nation. We
want to do what Is best for these peo-
pie. OF course we can't turn the islands
over to them because they don't know
enough to govern themselves. They are
not sufficiently civilized" :"
"Then they're not as civilized as the
Cubans are, are they?
"Well opinions differ as to that"
"But the Cubans are going to have a
government OF their own, you said"
"As an experiment, my son. No one
Cdgu lbil at Wills JAiuC JAoN WhhI WAA ANP
pen. Most Of our statesmen seem to think
that Cuba and Porto Rico and all of
those Philippine islands will be good
deal better off If they're annexed to the
United States. We can give them ell
the advantages of free government and
attend to their business affairs much bet
ter than they could do 1t themselves"
"Well, If we want to help them don't
see why they are fighting our soldiers" "
"That is because they are Ignorant
and do not understand the situation.
They think that we want to take some
advantage of them. It will require time
tc pacify them and get them to under
stand the Presidents policy OF 'benevo-
lent assimilation as he calls it."
What does that mean?"
Benevolent asslmilation'-ah-well
it's rather difficult to explain it so thai
a boy Of your years can understand