Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-10-26

what warrant, then, had the president for
putting. by his benevolent assimilation or
DER before the Filipfnos the ALTERNATIVE
of submission to our sovereignty or war?
Challenges Proof of Savagery.
ct am far from meaning to picture the
Philippine islanders as paragons of virtue
and gentle conduct. But 1 challenge the
imperialists to show me any instances of
bloody disturbance or other savagery
among themselves sufficient to create any
necessity of our armed interference to re
store order or to save them from anachy.'
/ ask and demand an answer. Is it not true
that, even if there has been such a disorder
" tendency, it would have required long
time for ii to kill one-tenth as many human
beings as we have killed and to cause one
tenth much devastation as we have
caused by our assaults upon them? Is it
not true that, instead of being obliged to
restore order we have carried riot and
death and desolation into peaceful COM
munities whose only offense was not that
they did not maintain order and safety
within themselves, but that they refused to
accept US as their rulers? And here is the
rub.
I'm the vocabulary of our imperiaHsts
order means, above all, submission to
their will. Any other kind of order, be it
ever SO peaceful and safe, must be sup
pressed with a bloody hand. This order
is the kind that has been demanded by the
despot since the world had history. Its
language has already become dangerously
familiar to us-a familiarity which cannot
cease too soon.
From all these points of view, therefore,
the Philippine war was S unnecessary as it
is unjust A wanton, wicked and abomi-
nable war-so it is called by untold thou
sands of American citizens, and so it is at
heart felt to be, have no doubt, by i'm
menSe majority of the American people.
Aye, as such it is cursed by many of our
very soldiers whom our government orders
to shoot down innocent people. And who
Will deny that this would certainly
have been avoided had the president re-
manned true to the national pledge that the
war against Spain should be a war of lib
Grafton and humanity, and not of conquest?
And what have we now? After eight
months slaughter and devastati ton, squan-
dared treasure and shame, an indefinite
prospect of more and more slaughter,
devastation, squandered treasure and
shame.
Is Wanton killing Humane9
What is the ultimate purpose of this
policy? To be perfectly fair, / will assume
that the true spirit of American imperial
ism is represented not by the extremists
who want to subjugate the Philippine is
landers at any cost and then exploit the
islands to the best advantage of the con-
queror, but by the more humane persons
who say that we must establish our SOW
ereignty over them to make them happy,
to prepare them for self-government, and
even recognize their right to complete in
dependence as soon as they show them
selves fit for it. Let me ask these WELL
meaning citizens a simple question. If you
think that the American people may ulti-
mately consent to the independence of
those islanders, as matter of right and
good policy, why do you insist upon killing
them now? You answer: Because they
refuse to recognize our sovereignty. Why
do they so refuse? Because they think
themselves entitled to independence and
are willing to fight and die for it. But if
you insist upon continuing to shoot them
down for this reason does not that mean
that you want to kill them for demanding
the identical thing which you yourself
think that you may ultimately find it just
and proper to grant them? Would not
every drop of blood shed in such a guilty
sport cry to Heaven? To kill men in just
war and in obedience to imperative neces-
sity is one thing. To kill men for demand
ing what you yourself may ultimately have
to approve is another. How can such kill
ing adopted as a policy be countenanced by
a man of conscience and humane feelings?
And yet such killing, without useless par
ley, is the policy proposed to US.
I'VE are told that we must trust Presi-
dent Mckinley and his advisers to bring
US out all right l should be glad to be
able to do so. but cannot forget that they
have got us in all wrong. And here we have
TO consider point of immense Importance,
which l solemn,y urge upon the attention
of the American people. 1t is one of the
fundamental principles of our system of
democratic government that only the con-
gress has the power to declare war What
does this signify? That a declaration of
war, the initia alton of an armed conflict
between this nation and some other power
the most solemn and responsible act ma
ton can perform. involving as it does the
lives and fortunes IF an uncounted number
of human beings-shall not be at the dis
erection of the executive branch of the gov
eminent but shall depend upon the author
ity Of the legisat tive repre- sentatives of the
people-in other words. that, as much as
the machinery of government may make
such a thing possible, the deliberate will
CT the people constitL tionally expressed
shall determine the awful question of peace
or war.
Brought on by the President.
"Those are. therefore. by no means wrong
who call this the presidents war And a
war so brought about and so conducted the
American people are asked to approve and
encourage s.I ply because we are in it
that is, because the president of his own
motion has got US into it. Have you con-
sidered what this means? Every man of
pubic experience knows how powerful and
seductive precedent is an argument in
the interpretation CT laws and of constitu-
tional practices. When thing, no matter
how questionable, has orce been done by
the government and approved, even ac-
QulGSCSu III, DN the D6OD-e. Ifldl act VIII
surely be used a justifica ton of its being
done again. In nothing is the authority of
precedent more dangerous than in defend
ing usurpations of governmental power.
Il am not here as partisan, but
American citizen anxious for the future of
the republic. And / cannot too earnestly
admonish the American people, if they
value the fundamental principles of their
government ard their own security and
that of their children, for moment to
thr0w side all naFfiSaO HAS nd SOharII- n
consider what kind of a precedent they
would set if they consented to, and by con-
senting approved the presidents manage
ment of the Philippine business merely be
cause We are in it, We cannot expect all
our future presidents to be models of public
virtue and wisdom as George Washington
was. Imagine now in the presidential Of
flee man well meaning, but maybe. short
sighted and pliable and under the influence
of so-called friends who are greedy and
reckless spectators. and who would not
scruple to push him into warlike complica-
uons in order to get great opportunities for
profit. or man of that inordinate ambi-
ton which intoXicates the mind and be-
fcgs the conscience: or a man of extreme
p1rtisan spirit, who honestly believes the
victory of his party TO be necessary for the
salvation of the universe. and may think
that a foreign broil would serve the chances
y. H. party: or a man of an uncomfortable
combatfveness temperament which
might run away with his sense of RESPONSE
bility-and that we shall have such men in
the presidential chair is by no means I'M
likely with our loose way of selecting can
didates for the presidency. Imagine, then,
a future president belonging to either of
these classes to have before him the prece-
de@I of Mr. Mckic.ey's ma ma cement of the
Philippine business. sanctioned by the ap-
prevail or ) the aCquiescence of the pec-
pie, and TO feel himself permitteC-nay
even encoura geG-to say 10 inset that, Il
this precedent shows. he may plunge the
country into wariiSe coaIic;s OF Eis own