The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-17

wanted to own was what adjoined his farm.
Under this head also comes the stirring
cry, which never fails to captiVate the pop
ular ear, that wherever the flag has once
been let loose, there it must always float.
All of which sounds well, but needs sec
ond thought. On the other hand IS the
equally extravagant talk about the greed of
conquest and the reduction of the Filipino
to the wretched condition of vassalage and
slavery. Those who indulge in this exu-
berance of rhetoric forget our war with
Spain and that we have simply transferred
to the United States as the result of our
victory in that war, the sovereignty which
Spain had over the Philippines, that this
transfer was incidentally very much in the
interest of the islanderS-mOre many think
than in our own; and that it relieved them
from a yoke under which they groaned,
giving them the fairest promise on which
their eyes ever opened-a promise which the
American people will redeem.
MUST NOT RETREAT.
1.-THE second method Of discussion may
be called the judicial deliberate. But on
the other hand is the view held. I think,
by the great majority of our people, that
we cannot thus easily, having once put our
hands to the plough, look back, and that
events not within our control have brought
US to our responsibilities, which we can
not disregard and let alone but which we
must face and meet. The matter is one
Of great moment. L most heartily wish
it had never confronted us / wish the
world would kindly let up for while
and not move so fast But / think it is
a mistake to say that it is beyond the
ability of the American people to deal
with a problem which other nations have
successfully dealt with, or that it is
harder problem than many problems which
are upon US already.
crisis as what they call the beginning Of
the end But this phrase is like the foolish
nurses cry of ghost to child. 1t is
a poor philosophy that peers hopelessly into
the future only to learn how far off is the
day, not of ruin and dissolution, for that
will never come, but of transition to some
form of civilization, some new form of
national life, some new arrangement of ma
tfonal boundaries, all of which are neces-
advancing progress Of mankind. Meantime,
our duty is to meet the responsibility that
is upon us
the result OF our new relations with the
Philippines may be to aid them to the ac-
quirement of the comforts, happiness and
benefactions Of our civilization; to educate
them to their political elevation and to help
them to the esta blishment Of their own self
government and their own free existence.
Meantime our association with them, If that
association has by the force Of events be-
come trust upon us, may We'll be accom-
panied with benefit to them and benefit to
us. There will be work III II for the philan-
thropiSt, the scholar and the humanitarian.
There will be opportunities for the outlet
Of our own enterprise and trade and COM
merce. The imagination kindles as it recog-
nizes what those islands Of the East may
yet become.
why doubt and repine, when the time of
doubling and repining is inexorably past,
when doubling and repining can do no good?
Why shall not the United States, that
these lands and tribes have been intrusted
to its disposition, enter upon the trust thus
imposed upon it with the determination
that, as it began by freeing them from the
yoke of oppression, it will go on and insure
them still larger blessings of liberty and
civilization and will so bear itself toward
them that in securing their welfare it shall
also promote It's own and, as always hap
pens when men or nations cooperate in
the spirit of justice and good will, the re-
ward shall come to both in their mutual in
the great Master, who limited not His mis-
sion or that Of His disciples to his own
chosen people, but proclaimed that His gos
pei should be preached in all the world unto
all nations-that greatest statesman of all
time, Jesus Christi