The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-15
americans Should
Hi GET Together
From the Washington Post.

from tnG w dSnlnStOn foSt'
GT HE people of the United States,
with very few exceptions, are
agreed that it is our duty TO
u suppress the Tagal insurrection
and establish order throughout the
Philippine archipelago. To that eX-
tent there is no serious difference of
opinion on what is somewhat vaguely
called the question of national eX-
"ansion. Republicans, Democrats and
'opulists; free coinage, gold stand
nd and paper money advertisement
'rho glory in the idea of carrying our
flag, our civilization, and our COM
merce into the Orient, and their fel-
low-Citizens who abhor that sentiment,
all these, with here and there an i'm
practicable who either has no opinion
or is disinclined to express it, realize
that we are bound to put period to
resistance of our authority and set up
just government among the ten mill
lions of strangely mixed peoples who
inhabit the twelve hundred islands
that have come under our control.
Those who opposed the war against
Spain, and carried their opposition so
far as to exert their influence against
ratification of the treaty of peace be-
cause it gave us new and great re-
spOnsibilities, understand that by and
through that treaty we are clothed
with the responsibilities against the
assumption of which they protested
They see and they do not attempt
TO deny, that overwhelming shame and
disgrace would be the penalty of fail
ure to do the duty that lies before us
They know, and the civilized world
knows, that we must either conquer
the insurgents or eVaCuate the ISL
ands, leaving the peaceful inhabl-
tants, native and foreign, to the mer-
cy of an insignificant proportion of
the millions whom we are bound to
protect and defend.
O.
Since, then, there is a general agree
ment as to the work to which we are
irrevocably committed; since all the
people of all parties and all sections
realize that to fall back would be 10
fail into an eternity of infamy, what
is the use of quarreling or disputing
over incidents in the course of events
that have brought us where we are?
w lltll a t'lllld 81 dlIpll Is 10 ne eAllll-
guished the firemen fight it till their
task is done before making an inquiry
as to the cause. When men are drown
ing, the work of rescue takes prece.
dence of discussion of the accident
that jeopardiZed their lives. 1t is not
great insurrection that confronts us
on the island of Luzon, but it may be
made greater by an apparent division
of sentiment among us. The folly of
burdening the present with the past,
of pickering over the points of diff
ference that showed up months ago,
is no more regrettable than getting by
the ears over a question of the future,
a question that has no place in the
present There will be time enough
to decide how the people of the Philip
pines shall be governed after the task
we have in hand is finished. We shall
know more of them, of their capacity
and needs; they will know more of us,
of our intentions and means of fulfill
ing them. Why, then, cannot all good
Americans citizens agree to disagree
as TO the unalterable past. agree to
relegate to the future the things that
belong there, and Cheerfully support
the president in his patriotic non-par-
tisan discharge of the imperative duty
that was devolved upon him as a re-
suit of a non-partisan and grandly sue
cesstul war.