The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-04
More Cold Comfort.
srHE recent address Of President
Schurman at Cornell university,

Schurman at Cornell university,
relative to the Philippine situa-
ton, contains much food for rehec-
ton.
Mr.. Schurman, as is well known. was
president of the Philippine commission
appointed by Mr.. Mckinley The
speech is very different in its general
lines of thought from the opinions ex-
pressed by Admiral Dewey, but it falls
quite as far short of being an approval
of the administrations policy. Except
where he says that I'VE have not yet
got beyond the first function of govern
ment-the suppression of instruction
and the establishment of peace and
order there is not a word in the
synopsis of the address that we have
seen that by any possible distortion or
perverson of language can be con-
strued into an endorsement of the i'm
perialistic idea upon which every at
tempted defense of Mr.. Mckinley's
policy rests.
He starts out by referring to the cir
cumstance that he was originally OPP
from Spain, and then he says 1.-THE
only question to-day Is this: The United
States having taken the Philippines
from Spain, what shall be done with
them?" Mark we'll this language He
does not say that having permanently
annexed the islands this question or
that arises. If they had been actually
annexed in the usually accepted
sense of the term, the question, what
shall de done with them?' would be an
absurd solecsm. He would have asked
chow shall they be treated?" and his
subsequent language shows plainly that
he does not regard the islands as per-
manently annexed or subject to the
United States.
Then President Schurman refers to
the vast difference between our as
sumption of sovereignty over the
Philippines and the previous phases of
our national expansion, adverting par
ticularly to the fact that the American
continent was practically uninhabited,
while the Philippines are densely popu-
lated with Malayans who have long
made the country their home. who re-
sent the intrusion of other races, and
to whom the physical environment is
far better adapted than it is to white
men.
Next he shys brick at those who
speak of the Philippines as 'our pos
sessions, and calmly conclude that we
may do what we please with Them
This, he said is ''too barbarous to be
taken seriously" So it is, but unfor-
tunately We have to take it Seriously
for it is the substance of every defense
that is made of Mr.. McKinley's policy,
and it is a claim which he himself put
forth before the Filipinos ever fired a
shot at the American flag. In his first
proclamation to the islanders Schurman
claimed for the United States absolute
ownership of the Philippines by virtue
of conquest and purchase from Spain.
Nowhere in that Illumination did he
recognize any right of the Filipinos to
voice in their own affairs. This,
according to President Schurman, is
"barbarous."
''only justifiable object of such expan-
sion is the establishment of good gov
eminent in the territory annexed, the
elevation of its people, etc. with a view
of ultimate independence" Very few
opponents of the administration policy
have gone farther than this, and yet for
doing so they have been denounced as
TRAITORS and copperheads,' with a
venom seldom surpassed in American
politics If Mr.. Mckinley had given
utterance to this sentiment as eX-
pressed by Schurman it is not easy to
| see how there could be much of a
Philippine question at this time.
Mr.. Schurman condemns in almost
unmeasured terms our idea of estab-
fishing colonies for our advantage; and
yet take the dollars and cents out OF
the imperialistic argument and literally
nothing would remain. The plea has