The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-01

A Hindu statesman has said that no
people in the world suffer less from
political ills or more from self-imposed
evils than the natives of India. Eng
land has wrought a wonderful change
in that vast country, but she might
have accomplished much more had it
not been for the obstinate superstitions,
false religions and blind prejudice of
the Hindus themselves. For plague,
famine and poverty the people can
thank their own baneful customs and
absurd traditions. Civilization and
sanitation have been forced upon them
against their will, yet nobody pre-
tends that the sum total of human hap
piness would have been greater if Eng
land had kept out of India. In Egypt
the same power is accomplishing SINH
lar results in not dissimilar ways and
nobody disputes that the Egyptians
themselves, as we'll as all the world,
have been gamers by the enterprise.
Yet regeneration has been accomplished
against the will of the natives, who
once rose in serious revolt under the
leadership of Arab Pasha.
England's tasks in India and Egypt
are not complete, but both are familiar
examples of the results of expansion.
The most conspicuous of all is Ameri-
ca. In the western hemisphere, as in
the eastern, the colonizing nations had
to do with allen races. outside Of
Mexico in North America, the natives
were savages and the invaders were
not always just, honest or humane in
their treatment of them. Many a page
of colonial history is a disgrace to Eu-
ropeans. Within the borders of the
United States an entire race has been
all but blotted out. Yet, for all that,
the grand total of achievements on this
continent during the last four hundred
years has been an incalculable ad-
vantage to mankind.
This life is a struggle for existence,
whether it be among individuals or
races, and the survival of the fittest
is law that applies with the same In
exorable force to the one as to the
other. 1t has been so since the world
began. Sometimes extinction has been
accomplished by war, sometimes by
disease and famine and sometimes by
the peaceful method of absorption
assimilation, if you will-of one race or
nation by another, and in the latter
process the conquering race has now
and then been the one swallowed up.
In the inevitable struggle for new land,
new homes and new markets it has
become a recognized maxim that no
peiple have an exclusive right to the
territory which they deliver up to desc
lation and savagery. If they do not i'm
prove the opportunities of the land,
others may take it who will. In the
natural extension of commerce and civ
iIized settlements, it has become obliga-
tory upon the stronger nations to keep
the world in order and suppress brig
andage and piracy, but if they would
do this effectually, they must in some
manner control the savage countries
themselves.
The various principles that have thus
been outlined have a bearing upon our
own position in the Philippines, but
with one important modification of fact.
We did not go into the war for the pur-
pose of colonization or conquest. The
seizure of the islands was a military
move dictated by the most fundamental
principles of strategy. Having got pos
session of them, we propose to make the
utmost possible out of the land and its
people. Our disposition towards them is
of the kindliest. We cannot clearly
foresee their future, any more than
Europeans could have predicted the
rise of the republics of America. In
time, the F'ilipinos themselves may be
reasonably expected to cooperate duti
fully with us in our labors, but peace
and order we must have now, whether
they will It or not, and for these things
we are fighting, as others have fought
before us the world over. The smatter
ing of civilization which the Filipinos
possess should prove of value to US as
well as themselves in the future, even
if It's usefulness is not conspicuous now
But whether it be India or America, or
the Philippines, the principle of expan-
sion is the same, and neither Orientals
nor Occidentals can get away from it.
Had there been no such thing as lex
pansion" in America, certain amiable
and philanthropic gentlemen in Boston,
Springfield and elsewhere would not
now be in a position to abuse the Nc
IIinley administration for its efforts in
the Philippines.