The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-03-11
QUESTION OF The PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
Only to Benefit Syndicates,
Says the Professor.
sCoFFERs At wAsHIHe1oA's TEACHINGS.
Imperialism Opens the Way
for Officeholders.

President David Starr Jordan OF Stan
ford University, Cal, delivered an ad
dress upon the Philippine question re-
Gently at the University. in the course OF
which he said:
81 wish tonight to maintain a single
proposition. 1t is our plain duty to with
draw from the Philippine Islands as soon
as in dignity we can. | ask you to con-
slider with me three questions OF the
hour:
"Wfy do we want the Philippines?
"What can we do with them?
What will they do to us?
"Thc questions demand serious con-
sideration. not one at time, but all to-
gethcr. We should know clearly our final
intentions rs a nation, for it is never
easy to rctracc false steps.
| Once convinced that we do not want
the Philippines it will be easy to abandon
them. The difficulty is that VIC do not
yet know what we want and we are afraid
that if we once let these people go we
will never catch them again.
"Lct us glance for moment at the ac
tual condition OF affairs. BY the for
tunes of war the capital of the Philip
pine Islands fell last May into the hands
OF Our navy.
"Thc city Of Manila we have held. and
by dint OF bulldog diplomacy our final
treaty of peace has assigned to us the
four hundred islands OF the whole archi.
pclago. To these we have as yet no real
title. We can get none till the actual
owners have been consulted. We have
only purchased Spain's quitclaim deed to
property she could not hold and which
SHE cannot transfer.
For the right to finish the conquest
OF the Philippines we have agreed OH our
part to pay $2o,ooo,ooo in cash, or S.
apiece for each man, woman and child the
archipelago contains, besides the land on
which they were born. and which, in their
IL
sum absurdly large, il we consider only
the use we are likely to make OF the
region and the probable cost of its re
conquest and rule.
1T seems criminally small, il we con-
slider the possible returns to u.s. or TO
Spain. from pcddling out the islands for
old junk in the open market or from
leasing them to commercial companies
competent to exploit them to their ut
most.
"Thc price is high when we remember
that the United States for century has
felt absolutely no need for such prop
erty and would not have taken any OF it
or all OF it as a gift.
The price is high, too when we OBJ
serve that the failure OF Spain placed the
islands, not in Our hands, but in the
hands OF their own pcoplc-a third party
whose interest we, like Spain, have as
yet failed to consider. Emilio Agunaldo,
the libcrator OF the Filipinos, the Wash
ington OF the Orient is the dc facto
| ruler OF most OF the islands.
"lf at the close OF our revolutionary
war the King OF France, coming in at
the eleventh hour and driving the Eng
lish from Our capital. had bought quit
claim deed TO the colonies, proposing to
retain them in the interest OF French
commerce, lie would have held exactly
the position in which President McKin-
ley has placed the United States.
Let us consider the first OF our propo-
sitions.
"Why do we want the Philippines?
TO this | can give no answer OF nv
own. can sec not one valid reason
why we should want them, and not many;
why they should want us.
I'm the one breath we are told that it
is the will OF God that VIC should annex
the Philippines and make civilized Amer
ican Christians OF their medley popula-
ton. In another, we must crush out the
usurper Aguinaldo, drive his rebel fol-
lowers to the swamps and Businesses and
build up institutions with the remnant
that survive.
But, again, what guarantee is there
that we shall give good government?
What obligation is there that any one
should do so? When did it become our
duty to sec that anarchy and corruption
are expelled from scmi-barbarous re-
gions? For thirty years we have mis-
governed Alaska with open eyes and
even now scarcely visible sign OF re-
pcntance. We are not sworn to good
government even in our own cities. We
give them self-govef and that is