Washington sentinel., 1899-11-04

April, 1895. II dSclared the nd
tion's policy in PLAIN terms as to al
the territory involved in the wa
with Spain. The only reason VIII!
the Philippines and Porto Rice
were not embraced in its terms wa
that nobody then contemplated tn,
possession OF those islands. II W.
were not to exercise sovereignty
jurisdiction, or control over the
territ ry and people that we wen
to war for, then, a f0rti0yt. we mus
have intended the same disclaimer
to apply to territories and peoples
which were only incidentally
brought within the range and scope
of the war. Any other conclusion
is either foolish or dishonest. Any
different Interpretation would be
ruled out OF any impartial court in
Christendom.
The answer to the question what
we would do with the Fillpinos
under present circumstance is,
therefore, very easy. We would
say to them exactly what we have
said to the Cubans from the begin
ming: I'VE will help you to form
a government for yourselves, and
then we will leave the control oil
the islands to the people thereof,
and with this end in view we vii
stop shooting il you will do the
same" Does anybody doubt that
the war would come TO an end i'm
mediatelYl Is there anything that
opposes such termination except
Mr.. McKinley's anlOa' py0pye. and
perhaps the consistency oi . the
Philippine Commission which, as
we have said, began with a threat
ol determination if the Filipinos
would not submit to terms which
the Commission itself could not
dehnep
When the advocates OF the war
poll cy in the Philippines are con-
fronted with the Cuban resolution,
they say that the two cases are en-
tirely different; that the FIlipinos
are savages and that they cannot
be trusted to form a stable and or
tlerlY government. This argument
had a good deal OF torce in the be-
because we were accus-
toned to think OF all Malays as
baTbarians. During the past six
months, however, and largely
through the information collected
by the Philippine Commission, our
ideas have undergone a change.
We have discovered that the peo.
Pile against whom we are fighting
are civilized, enlightened, and
also Christian people. ONLY Gov.
Roosevelt now speaks Of them as
savages. Only Mckinley and
Hanna now accuse Aguinaldo OF
taking a bribe from Spain.
Driven from this ground, the ad-
vocates Of the war policy say that
Aguinaldo and his followers rep
resent only a small fraction OF the
Of the islands, and that
the others would submit to our
rule peacefully if he would stop
fighting. Well, why not test that
assertion by stopping ourselvese
We see no objection to allowing
all the inhabitants to choose the
kind of government they want.
Admiral Dewey has declared Off
cially that they are better fitted for
selfgovernment than the Cubans.
Let Aguinaldo and his followers
begin with their government under
our protection and with our co op-
peration. Then let the others
choose whichever they pre1er-our
or his. Nothing worse
can come of it than our reatY with
the polYgamous and slave holding
Sultan OF Sulu. This treaty puts
the seal OF hypocrisy on our asser-
ton that we are striving to save
the islands from barbarous rule.
can be more barbarous
than a Mohammedan autocrat, and
yet we come to terms with him in
order to save his people from the
possible tyranny Of Aguinaldo.
To sum up the situation, there
is no insuperable or serious oosta-
Gle to peace in the Philippines.
The only thing wanting to that
end is the honest application Of the
same principles we promised to
Cuba when we first declared war
against Spain.