The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-02-21


republic? Who lifted from us the judg
ment which makes men of our blood our
brothers keepers?
1--WE do not deny them liberty. The
administration of orderly government Is
not denial of liberty. The administra-
tion of equal justice is not the denial of
liberty. Teaching the habits of industry
is not denial of liberty. Development OF
the wealth OF the land Is not denial of
liberty. If they are, then civilization It
self is denial of liberty Denial of liberty
to whom? There are twelve million Of
people in the Philippines, divided into
thirty tribes. Aguinaldo is of the Tagal
tribe OF two million souls, and he has
an intermittent authority over less than
$1,000 of these. TO deliver these conti-
mental islands to him and his crew would
be to establish an autocracy of barbar-
ism. 1t would be to license spoliation
1t would be TO plant the republic of
piracy, for such a government could not
prevent that crime in piraCys natural
home. IT would be to make war certain
among the powers of earth, who would
dispute, with arms, each others possess
ion of Pacific empire from which that
ocean can be ruled. The blood already
shed is but a. drop to that which would
flow II America would desert its post in
the Pacific. And the blood already spilled
was poured out upon the altar of the
worlds regeneration. Manila is as noble
as Omdurman, and both are holier than
Jericho. Retreat from the Philippines
on any preteXt would be the master
cowardice of history. 1t would be the
betrayal of a trust as sacred as human
ity. 1t would be a crime against Chris
tian civilization, and would mark the
beginning of the decadence of our race.
| And so, thank God, the republic never
| retreats.
1.-THE fervent moral resolve throughout
the republic is not "a fever of expansion
1t Is a tremendous awakening of the peo-
| pe like that of Elizabethan England.
1t Is TO fever, but the hot blood of the
most magnificent young manhood of all
| time; manhood begOtten while yet the
| splendid moral passion of tho war for
national life filled the thought of all the
| land with ideals worth dying for and
charged its very atmosphere with noble
purposes and a courage which dared put
destiny to the touch a manhood which
contains a million RoOsevelts, Woods,
| lIobsons and Duboces, who gricve that
| they, too, may not soon ConspiCuOusly
serve their country. civilization and man.
kind. Indeed, these heroes are great be-
cause they are typical. American man
| hood today contains the master admin
| istrators of the world and they 20 forth
| for the healing of the nations. They go
forth in the cause of civilization. They
go forth for the betterment of man; they
go forth, and the word on their lips is,
| Christ and His peace-not conquest and
its pillage. They go forth to prepare the
peoples through decades, and maybe.
centuries. of patient effort, for the great
gift of American institutions. They go
forth, not for imperialism, but for the
greater republic.
1.-The republic never retreats. Its flag
is the only flag that has never known de-
feat. Where the flag leads we follow, for
we know that the hand that bears it on
ward is the unseen hand of God. We fol-
low the flag and independence is ours.
We follow the flag and nationality is
ours. We follow the flag and oceans are
ruled. We follow the flag and. in OCoi-
dent and Orient tyranny falls and bar
barism is subdued. We follow the flag
at Trenton and Valley Forge, at Saratoga
and upon the crimson seas, at Buena Vista
and Chapultepec, at Gettysburg and Mis-
sionary Ridge, at Santiago and Manila,
and everywhere and always it means
| larger liberty, nobler opportunity and
greater human happiness"