The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-05-06
ANII-1MPER1AI1sI1C MEETING.

ANT1-IMPERIALISTIC MEETING.
The great mass meeting of Chicago
citizens last Sunday and the patriotic
utterances of the distinguished speak
ers thereat against the war in the Philip
pines and the policy OF imperialism have
produced wholesome effect through
out the length and breadth of the land.
The orators On the occasion were men
OF national renown and Of unquestioned
Amerlcanism in the highest and best
sense They were President Henry
Wade Rogers OF the Northwestern Uni
verslty, DR.. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Prof.
J. Laurence Laughlin, Edwin Burritt
Smith, Sigmund Zeisler, Bishop Spald-
ing OF Peoria, and Miss Jane Addams.
The speakers were enthusiastically ap-
plauded throughout and they richly de-
served it, for such patriotic eloquence
has been rarely, if ever, heard in the
city OF embalmed beef. Once the cry OF
treason" was raised by McKinlevite
when Prof. Laughlin had said that to
the Fllipinos the American flag is "the
emblem OF tyranny and butchery." An
answering cheer from the great multi
tude and cries OF "Murder!" "Wevler!"
and Shame" rang through the large
auditorium.
When Bishop Spalding declared that
England has never been a friend of
this country an Englishman near the
platform yelled: Bishop, that's lie!"
In moment he was suppressed by a
dozen angry men and kept silent after
wards. The audience was composed of
persons from all walks of life with a
large sprinkling of clergy of the various
denominations. They were stirred to
the depths by the oratory OF the speak
ers and reused to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm by the denunciation of the
oligarchy who desired war of con-
quest for selfish purposes. When one
OF the speakers said the Filipinos were
right in resisting aggression and did ex-
actly what the Americans did at Lex
ington and Concord, the vast audience
cheered. When Sigmund Zeisler said:
Criticism OF the president was treason
to-day and tomorrow it might be lese
majestic" he was vehemently applauded.
He elected further applause when he
declared: The imperialism of today
will be the militarism OF tomorrow and
the Caesarism of the day after" But
when he added, Manifest destiny is the
bastard child of blatant jingoism and
perverted commercialism, he was in
terrupted by prolonged applause He
declared that the Filipino congress COM
pares favorably with some of our state
legislatures, and the remark met with
hearty approval.
The speech of President Rogers was
calm, cool and comprehensive review
OF the situation from legal standpoint,
and he quoted authorities on interna-
tional law to show the mistake made
by the administration in seeking pos
session of the Philippine Islands by pur-
chase without consulting the wishes of
the inhabitants.
The speech of Jenkin Lloyd Jones
was one OF the best of the day, as may
be judged from the following intro
ductory words:
I'm silence and in patience we have
been called upon to witness what seems
to us a pathetic and deplorable lapse
from the high ideals Of democracy; in
silence and in patience we have received
day by day the sad news of the sacrifice
Of the lives Of American youths in far off
islands; in silence and in patience we
have listened to the attendant news that
told of the wholesale slaughter of the un-
trained children of the tropics, whose
only sin, as it seemed to us to be, was the
instinct-deep implanted in human ma
ture-to be free. Great applause) We
have been compelled to listen in patience
and in silence to the cry of helpless, peo-
pie who were lifting mute hands to the
God of the heavens, begging for them
and their children the lands and the
homes that were ordained to them by a
providence non-American and without
asking. Great applause.) We have
come to the time in this presence when
silence ceases to be virtue-(great ap-
plause)-and patience calls for resistance
-(applause)-and we IRE here to-day to
demand higher Interpretation Of the
words patriot and patriotism ZAP
plause.) As was suggested by silent
member on the platform just before we
came into this presence, patriot used to
mean a man who was willing to die for
the freedom of his own country; now it
would finally seem to come to mean in
this country the willingness Of man to