Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-02-16

to wear the garh of civilization, then
LET him return to his own people for 2
months, and he will discard the raiment
Of the paleface and resume his blanket
under an impulse too strong to be re-
sisted
Ways of "Giyi1izfng."
We have tried for 300 years to civil
lie the mobile red man, and, after all,
we are forced to reluctantly accept Cen
eral Shermans dictum that there is
no good Indian but a dead Indian.
Have we any assurance whatever that
our new Malay fellow citizens will
prove any more tractable than the ma
tives of this country, the natural lords
of the soil Indeed if the public prints
are to be believed, that renowned and
rampant expansionist General William
R. Shafter, recently declared in church
mark you. in church-that if he
had his way he would begin by shoot
ing one half the Filipinos and then civ
ilize the other half The generals car
mine remark needs diagram, so that
people may know which half he proposes
to exterminate Will he shoot the men
and spare the women, Stay the adults
and let the children liver We read OF
bloodthirsty tyrants who have decimat
ed conquered peoples, but am rather
inclined to believe that the freshly lau-
relied hero of Santiago is, if correctly
reported, the first to propose to kill off
one-h half theinhabitants of any country
His remark almost equals Caligula's ia
nous wish that the Roman people had
only one neck so that he could decapi-
tate them all by single stroke of his
sword instead Of wearying his imperial
arm by beheading his loyal subjects
piecemeal. General Shafter should con-
slider the fate of Caligula and remodel
his theory Has he considered what a
monumental job it would be to shoot
5000, 600 human beingsi Why are
we to shoot them at all2 What harm
have they done us2 Are they to be
butchered in cold blood simply because
they refuse to accept our ready made
blessings of liberty7 And was not a
church, dedicated to the worship Of
Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, a
peculiarly unsuitable place for General
Shafter' S ferocious utterance If ShafteI
is fair example of Christian soldier
in the closing days of the nineteenth
century, what becomes of that song Of
the angels. ''On earth peace, good will
to men r. If the general continues talk
ing in that strain, he is liable to go
down in history with Herod, Bloody"
Jeffreys and ''the Butcher of Cullo-
den !"
I am prone to believe that General
Shafter was incorrectly reported, for
such a blood curdling programme is
consistent with neither sanity nor ordi-
nary humanity. have seen the general
thrice, shaken hands with him twice,
heard him speak once, and he appeared
to me to be as mild hammered man as
ever wore a shoulder strap. That he
should favor the crimson horrors of
Strengthening these lazy, lotus eating
Malays by the million is difficult of be-
lief Only think of It'll For century
people have stood aghast at the cruelty
of the French revolution. and the names
of Robespierre, Danton and Marat, the
horse leech, are universally execrated
They are by common consent damned
TO everlasting fame Yet it is said
that only 5000 people were guillotined
during the reign of terror What are
they to compare with 5, 900, 900 of luck
less Filipinos, who are to be unceremo-
niously shot in order that we may enter
upon the glorious and self imposed task
of ciyilizing the rest 2 True that among
the heads that fell into the sawdust
during the wild dance of death at Paris
were those of Louis Capet, his wife,
Marie Antoinette, Philip Egalite, Count
ess Lamballe and other aristocrats and
bigwigs. But l think the fact will be
ascertained 10 be that General Aguinal-
do will not enjoy having his head cut
off any more than did Louis the Lock
smith. and, what is more, he will be
more disposed to fight to keep his nog-
gin on his shoulders than was the Bour
bon king.
Governing the FiIipinos.
In this connection it may not be con-
sidered impertinent to inquire how
many American soldiers the Filipinos
will butcher while we are killing
5000, 900 of them, for from what we
know of them they are not likely to
meekly permit themselves to be led to
slaughter.
One of two things is absolutely true
the Filipinos are either fit for self gov
,,,,,,,nv,@ ~ 4boxy ovo not Iiyonoo 9,YTTcf
take one horn of the dilemma or the
other. and whichever they take they
will be impaled upon it. In neither
event do we want them. If they are fit
for self government, under what pre-
text can we refuse them the right If
they are unfit, how can we justify our
selves to ourselves for incorporating
them into our body politic2
Wanting ourselves as the originators
and proponents of the doctrine that
governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed, how
shall we escape the scorn of despots if
we force these people vi ct arms to be-
come American citizensH
Even if they were clamorous to take
shelter beneath our flag we are under
no obligation to annex them. for surely
no man in his sober senses will for one
moment contend that we must receive
all who knock at out doors for admis-
sion 1t would be just as reasonable to
say that man is in duty bound to en-
tertain in his home every person that
might come unbidden to his house or
that woman should be compelled to
marry any suitor that laid his heart and
fortune at her feet, however repulsive
he might be.
Colonies Unconstitutional.
A great many patriotic American
citizens, including some of the very best
lawyers in the individually ex-United
States Senator George F. Edmunds of
Vermont. whose prodigious ability has
been freely admitted for third Of a
century object to this Philippine prof
ect on the ground that the federal gov
eminent has no constitutional right to
acquire territory except for the purpose
of making states out Of it. Indeed the
supreme court of the United States de-
cided that very point in express terms
against the lingo theory.
The bare mention of the constitution,