The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-09
HOAR STANDS
BY AGU|NALD Do
Completely Reviews the
Situation.
TIME RIPE FOR ACTION
AN AGREEMENT SHOULD BE
MADE AT ONCE.
Holds That the Government Should
Aid the Islanders in Forming
a Government to Their
Liking.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, Nov S.-Senator George
F. Hoar of Massachusetts has contrib
uted an article on Our Duty to the
Philippines" to the Independent, which
will appear tomorrow. He begins with
review of the circumstances leading up
to the war with Spain, OF which he says:
think it might have been averted and that
Cuba could have been liberated by peaceable
means II the counsel of Grant and Fish had
been followed and If public men in the
Senate had remembered that they were a part
OF the diplomatic power of this country ana
that II was unbecoming in them 10 lndulge DIT
ter and singing invectives against spain,
whether such invectives were just or UNJUST
But do not feel inclined to Judge these utter
ances severely. Something, as Burke said
must be pardoned to the spirit of liberty, and
those utterances, though In my judgment, un-
fortunate. came from brave. humane and lib
erty-loving souls.
Continuing the Senator says that down
to January l. 1899, the American people
and the Republican party were commit
ted to the doctrine that just government
rests upon the consent of the governed
and that every people has the right to
dissolve at will the political connection
that binds II to another people In deal
acted upon those principles, but the treaty
Of peace disclosed different purpose as
to the Philippines, the inhabitants of
which were much nearer independence
when the treaty of peace was signed than
ever had been the people of Cuba
Their leader had been brought over
to the islands in a United States ship by
the United States authorities and was in arms
at the head OF his forces, with our fun con-
currence ana c0-~neration If the statement
attributed to a high official in one of our de-
partmeRts who Is sometimes called on to sit
in the Cabinet with the President, We're &C
tually made. their leader had been offered by
President Mckinley the high office of colonel
offer which itself is a sufficient refutaton of
all the charges against him. They had framed
a provisional constitution. a model of its kind
and establishing a dictatorship like those es-
tabished by Bolivar in South America to give
place 10 a renublic soon as the military
condition should make il possible.
Locking back can any doubt the
wisdom Of those who desired to amend the
treaty and to deal with the Philippine Islands
we did with Cuba; to compel Spain to re-
nOunce her sovereignty; TO keep off all foreign
nations and to aid the islanders in establishing
desires?
The Senator refers to the epithet
traitor and other harsh words applied
to those who voted against the peace
treaty. and asks:
When the, President said that forcible an
neNation. according to our American code of
morals, would be criminal aggression, was he
a copperhead? Was he dtsloyal to the flag?
Was not he 4 Republican? Was there even an
utterance calculated to give courage to
Aguinaldo and his people as that?
AS to our future attitude toward the
Philippines, Senator Hoar writes:
The time has come to make up your minds
If you are to declare that you do not mean
to subjugate them to enslave them, that
you viii act toward them on the principles
and spirit of your own declaration of indie
pendence, the war be ended in hour
The refusal TO make this declaration In the
beginning brought on this war and your re-
fusal now TO declare yourselves is what is
alone responsible for its continuance.
Now we have got TO settle the question.
which the President has repeatedly declared
is for Congress or for the people. whether we
Will complete the subsection OF the Filipinos
whether Will undertake to govern them as
subjects or serfs or whether we will aid them
to become a self-governing nation either as
a republic, they seem TO desire, or
limited monarchy like Japan. or whether they
shall exist hereafter as an absolute monarchy
after the fashion maintaining in power
to-day the Sultan OF Sulu. with his slaves and
his har@m.
Senator Hoar then writes that this great
question has been discussed with lev
ity with an intolerance and with an APP
peal to low motives and to cheap pas
sions rarely paralleled in political his
history. a notable exception. he says, is
Governor Roosevelt whose late address,
in which he maintains that expansion is
the way to peace, was thoughtful and
able argument, worthy of serious consId-
Grafton" In conclusion the Senator says;
The American people, the brave and Just
people, who made the immortal declaration
and who maintained with life and fortune
derful constitution. to whose Monroe doctrine
is due the freedom of the American continent
from the Rio Grande TO Cape Horn, have not
changed their character or their principles in
the twinking of eye under the temptation
of any base motive or personal advantage. or
under the excitement of They sub
ject, doubtless, all masses of men are
however intelligent or however right, to great
OF passion.
But their sober second thought is to be
trusted. Their deliberate action will be wise
and just. The great passions by which they
are stirred and by which their judgment is
now cluoded are generous, noble and humane.
Reason will resume its rightful sway and the
great republic will remain republic still.