The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-03-03
AN POLICY.

With each recurring day comes the tidings of fresh Skin
mishes in the P lilippines and with each day comes messages
lat bring sadness to those left behind and untold grief to
those, who, with heart-plngs of sorrow, are left as links in
the now broken chain of family circles. Battling agai1st the
savage hordes of a tropical cline eight thousand miles from
home, one by one 1.-THE boys, whose absence hts darkened a
thousand homes and whose death means naught but desolato1
to a thousand 6resides, are being added to the death list.
The flower of western manhood and the cream of western
youth is being needlessly sacrificed in a cline wholly undesir-
ed by the American people and for an object, if there be any.
wholly unworthy of such a sacrifice. These facts have been
brought sadly home to the people of the Black Hills and South
Dakota within the past two weeks.
Why this sacrifice of American blood? Why this criminal
destruction of the lives of those who should today be at home
engaged in the peaceful pursuits of every day life? Dare we
say that it is being done at the bidding of the American people?
When have the people expressed a desire for such a policy of
destruction? Let the supporters of this criminal policy an
swer these questions.
Those brave volunteers in the Philippines are not battling
in defence of their country. Their success of failure on the
field of battle has little to do with the final destiny of the
great nation under whose flag they have taken up arms. They
enlisted IN a war for humanity a war which was to strike
the shackles of tyranny from oppressed Cuba. That object
has been acc emphasized, but. in it's accomplishment the admin
istration seems to have been siezed with a craze for the a-
QUESTION of new territory. The brief conflict which brought
such glory to American arms and the American flag has
brought lasting disgrace to the American nation. The guise
of sympathy for oppressed humanity has been torn aside and
he conflict has resolved itself into one of conquest. Dare we
Ideney this statement? President Mckinley has said that I'VE
MUST RETAIN THOSE STANDS" Secretary of War
Alger has sent forth the edict that ''our flag has been planted
there and 1T MUST O COME DOWN. The whole
administration is supporting this same criminal policy-not
with the consent of the inhabitants of those islands nor with
the consent of any of the American people except the trusts,
corporations and moneyed interests which purchased the
|ciple that Governments derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed has been thrown overheard and tram
peeled under foot. A basic American principle through it be,
fought for on the fields of Lexington and Bunker Hill and
who boast that 1--WE have outgrown the constitution declare
that it is simply sentiment"
The declaration is made by them that inasmuch as the Fill
'pinos have attacked the American forces it is our duty to sup
press them through the "civilizing'' fundamentally of the
sword and bayonet, shot and shell. Let us see. The inhabi-
.tants of those islands were battling for their independence,
their freedom, absolute and unconditional. Spain, in her last
struggle, coded them to America. What assurance was given
those natives by the present administration that American SUI
premacy and occupation there was not to be permanent? Not
given them. On the other hand the assertion has been made