The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-02-21

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tive to possess and hold the Philippines,
giving to the people thereof peace and
beneficent government, affording them
every opportunity to prosecute their
lawful pursuits, encouraging them in
thrift and industry, making them feel
and know we are their friends, not their
enemies, that their good is our aim !:
that their welfare is our welfare, but
that neither their aspirations nor ours
can be realized until our authority is
acknowledged and unquestioned.
That the inhabitants of the Philip
pines will be benefited by this republic
is my mistaken belief: that they will
have kindlier government under our
guidance and that they will be aided in
every possible way to be self-respecting
and elf-governing people, is as true as
that the American people love liberty
and have an abiding faith in their own
government and their own institutions.
mo imperial designs lurk in the
American mind. They are alien to
American sentiment, thought and pur
pose. Our priceless principles undergo
no change under tropical sun. They
go forth with the flag; they are
wrought in every one Of its sacred folds
and are inextinguishabl in their shin
ing stars.
" Why read ye not the changeless
truth.
The free can conquer but to save.
IF we can benefit these remote peo-
pies. who will object? If in the years
of the future they are established in
government under law and liberty, who
will regret our perils and sacrifices?
Who will not rejoice il our heroism
and humanity? Always perils and al
ways after safety; always darkness and
clouds, but always shining through
them the light and sunshine; always
cost and sacrifice, but always after
them the fruition of liberty, education
and civilization.
81 have no light or knowledge not
common to my countrymen. I do not
prophesy. The present is all absorbing
to me. but cannot blind my vision by
the bloodstained trenches around Ma
Mia, where every red drop, whether
from the veins of an American soldier
or a misguided Filipino, is anguish to
my heart; but by the broad range of
future years, when that group Of
islands, under the impulse Of the year
just passed, shall have become the gems
and glories Of those tropical seas,
land Of plenty and Of increasing possi-
bilities, a people redeemed from savage
Incidence. devoted to the arts Of peace,
in touch with the commerce and trade
of all nations, enjoying the blessings of
freedom, of civil and religious liberty,
of education and OF homes, and whose
children and children's children shall
for ages hence bless the American re.
public, because it emancipated and re-
deemed their fatherland and set them
in the pathway of the world best civi
lization. =
Ihe war department yesterday issued
the following statement: Orders have
been given for the mastering out of the
following volunteer regiments at Sa-
vannah, Ga: Third Georgia, batteries
a, B. Q. D, Maine artillery, Two Hun
dred and Second New York volunteers
to present at the camps at Augusta,
Ca, and Greenville, s. G.; Third Ala
bama, Third Connecticut, Fifth Massa-
chusetts, Thirty-fifth Michigan, Fif-
teenSh Minnesota, Forty eighth New
Jersey, Two Hundred and First New
York. Two Hundred and Third New
York, Tenth Ohio, First Rhode sIlartl,
Second West Virginia. This order dis
charges all volunteers remaining in the
United States.
Frank e. Taft, prominent republic