The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-01-26
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thursday, Jan. 26, 1899.
POSSESSION THROUGH CONQUEST.

POSSESSION THROUGH CONQUEST.
The right of the United States to
obtain trans-marine possessions by
con luest, Observation-Disclosures war
making power, is beyond dispute,
and the case of the F'loridas affords
a precedenttor governing them with
autocratic powers, 50 long as circum-
stances shall seem to call for the
cxcrtion of such absolute authority.
Conceding, however, that we have
the right, shall we, also, say that it
is eypedient to use it? Mr.. W. j.
Bryan replies in the rtegative. He
insists that Americans who fought
for their own independence should
not withhold independence from the
Flipinos, who covet a like blessing
for themselves. This has plausible
sound, but Mr.. Bryan can hardly
mean all that his words imply.
There is no reason to doubt that, in
l77G, the majority ofthe negroslaves
in the thirteen American colonies
were quite as civilized as sthe Tagals
Of Luzon are now. Yet our fore
fathers: who put forth the Declara-
ton of Independence, did not apply
it to their own slaves. Does Mr..
Bryan think that they ought to ohavc
done So: Again, will Mr.. Bryan
tell his supporters in the Southern
States that, in his opinion, it was
right and wise after our Civil War
to confer the suffrage upon the en-
ancipated slaves merely because the
latter were assured by their leaders
that they needed? Does he not think
that negroes are incomparably better
off to-day in those Southern States,
where they are practically excluded
from voting by the State Constitu-
tions, than they would be in Hayti,
where they would possess all the
powers of self-government? If to
this question Mr.. Bryan answers
"ycs," must he not also acknowledge
that, under the autocratic, but just
and wise control of our Federal ad-
ministration, the Tagals of Luzon
would beincomparably better off, not
only than they were under Spanish
mi>rule, but than they would be, if,
Ike the blacksof Hayti, they should
try to govern themselves. We see,
then, that we cannot lay down with
out qualification the principle that
complete independence mustbe given
to any people that choose to ask for
it. Some Interpretations put forth
by Mr.. Bryan, when speaking at the
jackson Banquet at Chicago, are
scarcely warranted by history. He
says, for instance, that the capacity
for selt-government increases with
participationin government. That is
true only of certain races. 1t GER
tainly is not true of the black race
witness Hayti, San Domingo and
Liberia. Neither is it true of races
in which blood has been diluted by
admixture with negro or indigenous
American stocks: witness almost all
of the Latin-American republics.
Invery few OF them has the capacity
of the people tor self-government
been developed by the nominal right
of participation in government.
Neither can we accept Mr.. Bryan's
further assertion that, while the
Filirinos are not far enough advanc-
ed to share in the government of the
people of the United States, they are
competent to govern themselves, and
will be able to establish govern
ment as nearly perfect as they are
comepetent to enjoy. To say, as Mr..
Bryan says, that, if we give the
Filipinos time and opportunity, by