Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-02-23

Dut taking 1t on the low basis liked by
the legislatures of the states at the be-
hest Of the corporations, 20, 900 human
lives at s., 000 each would amount to
the astounding total CT 800, 600. 600
annually, but even this enormous sum
would represent only small portion of
the financial loss to the United States
by reason of the death Of her soldiers in
the Philippine Islands, for, Judging by
past experience, it is perfectly safe to
assume that for every two soldiers who
died in the service Of their country at
least one pensioner would be billeted
on the public treasury The minimum
pension under our laws by reason of
death is 800 per year, and the average
life of a pensioner is something like 25
years, so that for every soldier who
dies. in addition to the $5. 600 money
loss which the government sustains by
reason of his death, there is a contingent
loss, in the shape of pensions, amounting
to at least 81, 500 so that the prospect
Of supremacy in the Philippine Islands
also presents the prospect of an appalling
sacrifice of human life and financial
drain which no nation on earth can
long endure.
Not Fitted For Citfzenship.
But even the financial ruin above
foreshadowed pales into utter insignif-
canoe when compared with the i'm
mense damage which will be done to
our institutions in other ways. There
is not solitary man whose opinion is
at all worth considering who believes
that out of the 10, 600, 600 inhabitants
of the Philippines there is even one hu-
man being fit for American citizenship
The thing is an impossibility in nature
Even the most rabid and enthusiastic
c-Philippine advocate dares not up
hold the theory that sovereign states of
the Union are to be made out of these
islands either now or hereafter If this
is not to be done then clearly, if we
are to hold them at all, we are to hold
them as colonies or dependencies, to be
ruled by the sword and the sword alone
This means that we are to appoint con-
tinually a brood of proconsuls and mill
tary satraps and send them forth, poor
as Lazarus at the rich mans gate, to
return to us lawless nabobs to corrupt
our manners and our institutions by
wealth wrung from an alien. a servile
and helpless people.
Still another feature must give pause
to rational beings before they viii CON
sent to this stupendous revolution in the
conduct of our affairs. and that is the
overshadowing danger to our liberties
resulting from a great standing army,
against which all of our patriots and
sages from Washington to the present
hour have warned them. Congress may
pass all the laws it pleases constituting
this new standing army an army of oc-
cupation for the Philippine Islands, and
prescribe all the penalties its ingenuity
may devise against bringing these troops
to the United States or retaining them
here, but the fact remains neverthe-
less that a resolute, ambitious, un-
scrupulous man in the White House
may within 80 days. while congress is
not in session. transport 80. 600 regulars
from the Philippines to overawe the
electors and to overthrow the republic.
1t is useless to say that no such man has
ever sat in the presidential chair All
history teaches that in every age and in
every cline, whenever the opportunity
for seizing supreme power has presented
itself, man with nerve great enough
and conscience little enough to profit by
the occasion has put in an appearance
upon the scene of action. Caesar and
Napoleon were not freaks of nature, but
were types of class Conditions sim
liar to those which produced them viii
also produce their counterparts. 1t is
an old saying that an ounce of preven-
tion is worth pound of cure, and un-
less we desire to become slaves we would
do well to refuse to place the means of
our enslavement in the hands of any
man.