The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-01
HAS IT FLoPPED AeAINq

cause OF that bloodleSS night attack al
Manila.
2. That we bought the Philippine:
from Spain and propose TO keep them
on that account.
B.. That the flag cannot be taken dowr
where once it has been raised.
4. That we owe it to the FiliDinos to
preserve order among them, no matter
what may be the cost to this country in
men and money.
5. That we are under obligations to
those people to govern them, whether
they want us to do so or not.
The first excuse for forcible expan-
sion indicates a spirit of revenge and
is unworthy of the American people
and government. Since President Nc
and deadly attack, wholesale massa-
ere of American seamen. as "a lament
able Incident" and wanted to leave the
| matter to Spain's sense of fairness
for settlement, we cannot believe that
he is seriously prosecuting a war of re-
venge- upon the natives of a southern
Pacific archipelago.
The second claim that we bought the
Fllipinos for $40, 900, 900 and that there
fore we are expending money at the
rate of $3.50, 100000 year to keep them,
is mercenary on its face, but shows a
bargaining ability of which the agents
of this government have no right to
feel proud. 1t isn't good business to
pay for real estate that can't be deliv-
cred and which, at best, amounts to
little more than an option on most
unsatisfactory conquest. Smart men
do not buy lawsuits and wise govern
ments do not buy wars. -
If the second claim is valid, the third
| is made ridiculous, for what we buy
we may sell or give away, and the tax
/ ing down of the flag is the simplest
thing in the world. Besides, the Amer
lean flag has been taken down from
many fortress that American soldiers
have stormed and American vessels
have reduced. Nor was the action at
tended with the slightest dishonor.
And now we come to the philan-
thropic phase of the question. This is
the trump card of imperialists. They
insist that it is our duty to control
these 100000 of heterogeneous people
divided as they are into sixty tribes or
more, and scattered over 1 400 islands,
They declare that we are honor bound
to extend the protecting influence OF
the stars and stripes over the various
institutions of the Mohammedans, Pa
gans and other fanatics, who dwell
among those distant isles of the Orient
They assert that we have to include
those Tagals and visayas and Sulus
and Morros and Negritos in our gov
eminent for their good and our gain.
What absurdityl Who are these south
sea islanders that we should waste our
time and money upon them? Who
are they that the president of this re-
public, who ought to. have enough here
at home to engage his talents and. at
tention, should sit up nights devising
ways and means to govern them at the
expense of the American taxpayer?
Who are these natives of tropical
cline that we should send armies half
way around the world to beat them
into submission and quell their weekly
instructions? Who are they that the
imperial press should waste it's sympa-
thy upon them?
Are they desirable citizens? Are they |
desirable subjects. even. ifithe imperial
istic idea of having subjects in a free
republic shall prevail? Do we want |
them? Do we want to add to our pop
ulation 100000 of human being so |
thickly huddled together and so far
away that we can't even get their |
lands? Do we want to hold against |
their will a people, or conglomeration |
of warning humanity, who know moth
ing of our institutions and whose high !
est aim is to keep up a perpetual revo-
luton? Are such peoples suited to our
form of government? Let our morning
contemporary answer.
Editorially, speaking through a ficti-
tious person, it says:
I compared those wretches with our
own inspired fathers, who laid the foun-
dations of our republic and with their
lives defended their work gloriously until
ever get forgiveness for a sacrilege like
that?
And it goes on to say that these peo-
pie are unfit to take part in a govern
ment based on the consent of the gov
erned; that, although able to read and
write, they are destitute of every emo
ton of patriotism, or honor, or self
respect, or respect for law, or common
gratitude" 1t says further that they
are constitutional thieves and desti-
tute utterly of that combination of at
tributes which men understand by the
term character" that they are "trifling
whose idea of liberty is abb
solute license, and whose idea of honor
would not restrain them from selling
the honor of their own sisters for pit
tance" Waxing warm under the in
spiration of the tropical theme, il says
that they are "half-devils and half
"wretches who do not re-
spect their own mothers" degenerate
of degenerate races,
who, personally and collectively, have
40 more natural regard for order or
for law than so many chimpan-
GEES
In Gods name, If they are as bad as
this we don't want them under any
What in the world ]
would we do with S.000,00 of people like :
that? We can't make citizens of them;
we don't want subjects of this kind: we
ean'tloccupy their rice fields and hemp
patches; for the islands are already
more denseiy populated than is the Mis- ]
sissippi valley. They why should any ,
American want to enter another hemis- ,
ohere m fry assimilation with neorla | /,