Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-26
ORAT0RY
Addresses Delivered Yesterday From
the Reviewing Stand.
LAUDATION OF TIE NATIONS heroes
Reunited Country Needs No ALI
ance With Foreign Power.
OUNTRY'S FIVE WARS

co y n L II \ > FL V b w A h >
Fully 900 people remained at the review
ing stand yesterday afternoon to listen to
the oratory. The crowd packed the street
in front of the stand and prevented cars
from running for more than hour.
Senator Thurston, who presided, called
the meeting to order Immediately after the
last of the pageant had passed His OPEN
ing remarks We're appropriate. He referred
to the five wars which have been waged by
this country and of the blessings of peace.
He concluded as follows
Men and governments pass away, but
the glory of great deeds lives on forever.
Such heroes Washington, Grant and
Dewey: such statesmen Lincoln and Nc
Kinley, take their place with the i'm
mortals.
New duties and responsibilities are upon
us. Not of our seeking, but forced by the
unexpected and unforeseen fortunes of a
holy war. Are we not strong enough, brave
enough. wise enough, humane enough to
meet them and master them and shape
them into blessings? Dare We not turn
Wlde-open, fearless eyes to the
panding horizon of the twentieth century?
Let towards falter and pessimists bewail.
The world moves The republic lives.
God reignS: and in the sunshine of His
guidance We go marching On-on under a
nag that symbolizes the highest aspirations
OF the human race. Washington made it
the flag of independence; Lincoln made it
the nag of liberty; Mckinney has made 1t
the flag of mans humanity for man-until
today, on land and sea the wide world
round serenely uplifted toward the empy-
rean biuc-klssed by the sun of day, wooed
by the stars of night; feared by tyrants
beloved of mankind-it TRANQUILITY floats the
unconquered flag of the greatest nation of
the earth"
MIR. Davis Sueecb
Assistant Secretary Davis of the Interior
Department, whose fame as a silver
tongued orator is national, spoke first. He
began his speech as follows:
our war with Spain was right
our war with the Filipinos is right
AND the brave men who upheld the dig
flty ana honor of the republic on land and
sea and raised the stars and stripes in Gu
ia, Porto kico and the Philippines are the
heroes of the nation whom we delight to
honor today
The speaker then proceeded to euIogize
the private soldier and sailor as the pedes-
tails OF the fame of commanders He said
that the United States made armies as if
by magic because the patriotism of every
man made him Il soldier.
During the course of his remarks Mr.
Davis referred to the traitorous governors
VINO dem anded the recall of their troops"
He continued in part:
w hen Cuba, lying at our feet-wounded
and bleeding, starving and suffering
stretched out to us her hands and cried
TOR help we heard that cry. 1t was the cry
OF Justice. liberty, humanity and brother
hood, and to have turned deaf ear to it
would have been shameful and coWardly
1t would have been to prove false in every
principle of our government and every OBJ
legation of common humanity.
And when We heard of the awful fate
of the gallant crew who manned the Maine
we realized that duty and honor called US
to action
Ono
men were cilled for and million men
were ready to answer. Two hundred mil
lions OF dollars were wanted and a billion
dollars was soon waiting.
our country was united again, in fact as
well as in name Sectional lines-once red
with the blood of hrothers-suddenIy dis
appeared never to appear again. while SOL
oilers who once wore the gray. as well as
those who wore the blue. together with
their sons, marched side by side to the
music of the Union. in uniforms of the same
color and under the same starry flag Thus
we stood as one people face to face with the
barbarism and tyranny of Spain. And
grand has been victory and rema rkably
small our sacrifice of human life
Query Presented.
Now. the question arises shall we give
up the traits of that victory? I answer MOI
Our only course is to fight it through
The authority of the United States must
be thoroughly established and il must he
thoroughly recognized by the Filipinos
When this has been done then We can
treat with them and treat them right The
leader of the Filipino insurgents is but a
feneSade-he does not represent major
fly of the people of the Philippine Islands
He sold himself once for money. and doubt
less would do so again. Like some Ameri-
cans, he is a patriot for gold
LAS result of our war with Spain to
bring freedom to a race Of people in slav-
cry, our government was compelled to
ceive the authority surrendered in the Phil
irpines by Spain. whose sovereignty there
had been complete since the sixteenth CEN
tury. No other government in those islands
was competent to receive the authority sur
rendered by Spain-every intelligent person
knows this to be a fact our government
had to accept and assume this responsible
ity. To have failed to do so would have
made the laughing stock of the civilized
world. And the result would have been
that those islands would be surrendered by
us to anarchy or to foreign and selfish in
tervention. Neither course was compatible
with duty with the dictates of humanity.
Effect of Surrender.
''To surrender those islands would be to
smirch the glory of the matchless victory
of Dewey and his gallant men. who in one
day opened the gates of a new era for our
republican era that is destined to be filled
with marvellous accomplishments in the
worlds wondrous competitive race of ma
tons.
ITO surrender them would be to cast a
cloud upon the brightness of the deeds per-
formed by our soldiers now there, they
fight in the jungles, swim the rivers amid
storms of bullets, and without a murmur
die for their countrys honor.
ITO surrender them would be an insult
to the brave old veteran of the north or
south who gave his son willing sacrifice
upon his cOuntrys altar. 1t would be a
heartless snub to the heroic wife who tolls
at home for her little ones while her hus-
band fights for his country in the Philip
pines.
ITO surrender them would be a cruel heart
thrust to the spartan American mother
whose baby boy fights and bleeds and dies
for the dear old flag. 1t would be an in
suit TO the old folks in many an American
home. as they sit on the porch where the
clingng ivy has clambered on the lattice
and where the wren has built it's nest lis
tenng to the music of the birds which fill
the trees, and. the afternoon sun sinks