Omaha daily bee., 1899-04-07
COVE IN AND me- SAVED.

Minneapolis Times: with the tenor Of the
/ proclamation Ito the Filipinos). taken as a
/ whole there is little to find fault unless It
be that the promise OF self-goyernment Is
almost too forcibly linked with demand for
/ continued recognition OF United States
sovereignty, The third paragraph, though
somewhat yerbose-we may as well acknowl-
edge that the whole thing is rather wordy-
aims to give our alien wards an idea OF
what the great honest heart Of the republic
yearns to confer upon them.
St Paul Globe: Whatever the sovereign"
rights of the United States may be in the
Philippines to which the commission refers
we are all agreed on recognizing "the inter-
national rights and obligations which the
Spanish war brought with 1t. These may
embarrass and delay our departure from
that far-off land, but they will not prevent
such departure at the earliest practical mo-
ment We have as little right to stay there
as we have to stay in Cuba, beyond the time
when the closest approach to a peaceful
and civilized system of government of
which the people are capable can be estab-
lished.
Globe Democrat; The civil authority
which the president Is empowered to set up
would have been in operation by this time
II Aguinaldos insane attack on the Amer
leans had not taken place. No promises
for the far future can be made to the
Filipinos. The only power which can es-
tablish permanent authority is congress,
and congress will not take up the task
until eight or ten months hence, at the
earliest. One point however, can be stated
with absolute definlteness. The ultimate
status of the Philippines will be very
largely determined by the conduct of their
tt1,n n1f To- ~, lg,...
Chicago Times Herald: 1t is declarations
like this which have significance in our own
country rather than rhetorical sweetmeats
such as the felicity and perfection of the
Philippine people," "the cultivation of let
arts" and those nobler ideals which con-
stitute the higher civilization of mankind"
Perhaps the Fiipinos who have been fed
upon grandiloquent Spanish proclamations
may take to the confection though it is
decidedly rich for their Intelligence, but
the one point of supreme Importance is that
with all the agitation of the anti-eXpansion-
lists the administration has not budged
hairs breadth. 1t proposes to keep what it
has got under the usual American guar
antics of civil liberty.
st. Louis Republic: This authoritative
announcement of the administrators policy
brings the United States face to face with
one of the gravest problems yet encoun-
tered in national history. 1t seems to say
peremptorly that the government will per-
manently hold and occupy these possessions
in the far east, with all the possibilities or
international complication in the future
definitely accepted. 1t involves the franz
ing and inauguration of a colonial policy
fundamentally at variance with American
institutions as heretofore understood. It
largely repudiates the Monroe doctrine,
under which this country has in the past
logically forbidden European interference
in affairs of the western hemisphere. 1t
opens up new vista of participation In
world politics, the ultimate results of which
may not yet be clearly foreseen. Thought
full Americans will hope that in this new
departure, necessitating a heavy outlay OF
money in the shape of a Colonial budget"
as well as the maintenance OF large army
in the Philippines, there is no surrender
of American principle likely to react dis
astrously upon this country or to belle our
record as a liberty-loving and liberty