The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-11
FILIPINos AND cUBANs.

According to General Funston, who is
not afraid of war and can't well be
called traitor to his country. the war
in the Philippines could be stopped any
day by promise similar to that which
has been made to the Cubans.
If ever a country was bound by a
solemn pledge the United States is UNI
der obligations to herself, to Cuba and
to the world, to give the people of that
island their national independence as
they have been given their freedom
from Spanish thralldom. 1t is prom
Use made by the people through their
national representatives, a promise re-
peated by the president in his official
declarations, a promise endorsed by
the people and written indelibly in
history with the blood of American
patriots.
Such a promise would have satisfied
the Filipinos. 1t was all they asked.
1t is all they expect to gain. And, as
Funston says, whenever they receive
the intimation of such a promise they
will lay down their arms and peace
will be restored. If they had been
they had been given the least assur-
ance that independence was in store for
them, there wouldn't have been an
outbreak in February, there would have
been no Filipino rebellion to suppress,
there wouldn't have been hero sacri-
feed upon the heather altar of con-
quest, there wouldn't be mourning in
so many homes today
Why wasn't this assurance given?
Why was the president silent as to the
fate of the Filipines when he was con-
graduating the people of Cuba upon
their liberation and painting in rain
bow colors the glory of certain and
immediate independence? Did the Gu
ban army render the American troops
greater service than the followers of
Aguinaldo rendered the army and navy
of the United States? No. Had the
Cubans been wrestling with Spanish
tyranny longer than the Filipinos had?
No. The Cuban rebellion was about
thirty years old. That in the Philip
pines had been going on for 300 years.
Was the cause for which the Cubans
struggled higher, grander than that in
which the Filipinos were engaged? No.
We have been told that Aguinaldo and
his followers were fighting in cause
infinitely higher than that in which our
revolutionary forefathers were en-
gagged" The Cubans could not beat
that Are people on 1.400 islands 1000
miles away, more easily governed than
the inhabitants OF one island which lies
almost in sight of our mainland2 Sure
Iy not. Are the people of Cuba better
able to govern themselves than the
Fiipinos are? Admiral Dewey, who
knows what he is talking about, says
that 1.-THE Filipinos are far more cap
able of self government than the Gu
bans are" Nor is this a chance re-
mark which might have been misunder-
stood or misquoted. 1t is a deliberate
statement made in the admiraIs Off
cial report to the navy Departmental
declaration that he repeated in a sub
sequent report.
Then what is the secret of this dis
elimination between the Cubans and
the Filipinos? Will any imperialist an
swer? Can any administration defender
explain? What is the reason President
Mckinley persistently refuses to speak
the word that will end the sanguinary
conflict in the Philippines conflict
that may be ended by the holidays or
may drag on. as eminent officers in the
regular army have predicted, for an in
definite period, costing millions of
money and hundreds Of human lives
every year?