Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-08-25
ImDerialism Assailed,

A despatch from Ashfield, Mass.
under date of Aug. II, says: The
twenty-first annual dinner in aid of
Sanderson academy was held here to-
day. Among the speakers were Prof.
Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard Uni
versity; Miss Elizabeth Shaw Curtis,
daughter of the late George William
Curtis; State Senator Herbert G Par
sons and Moreield Storey. Prof. Norton
presided. The danger of imperialism
was the keynote of the addresses.
Prof. Norton, after praising Senator
Hoar for his "superb, courageous and
almost solitary resistance in the senate
last winter to the confirmation of the
treaty with Spain," said:
by what right are we numbering the
people of the Philippines and devastating
their homes? Is it because we paid $780,
10000 for what we could not buy? Did
we pay this sum to make the people
slaves to Our will. or, in the glowing
phrase, to compel them to submit to
benevolent assimilation?'
"Yes, we are committing this carnage
for the sake of dominion, in order to
compel the submission of freemen who
owe US no submission, to deprive them Of
I their independence, to enforce moral
slavery upon men who have as good a
right to freedom as we ourselves.
And their steadfast resistance to our
oppression, which deserves the respect of
every free man, is called by the hot
headed popular hero of our war IAN out
burst of savagery, and his advice to the
nation is 'to resolve to back up the presi-
dent to the full in represslng this out
burst of savagery once for all
"And our new secretary of war fol-
lows up these fatuous words with the
declaration that from now on the war
will be prosecuted with all possible
energy. There will be 1000 men
In the Philippines ready for active SER
vice at the close of the rainy season, and
more will be sent there if necessary
This is George III policy; these are
Lord North words; the policy and the
words of folly, of tyranny and of failure.
''It were better to remember the advice
of that great statesman Lord Chatha u,
who, when in l775 we were giving that
example to the world which the Filipinos
are now closely Initiating, moved to adj
dress His Majesty to withdraw the
troops from Boston, in order to open the
way toward happy settlement of the
dangerous trouble in America
'Let the cry rise till it thunders in the
ears of the administration, Stop this
fighting'
THAT is the instant need, the first step
toward regaining national self respect.
The next may be more difficult-to con-
fess our mistake, to admit that we have
done wrong, and to endeavor, so for as
may now be possible, to repair it.
"We cannot bring the dead to life, we
cannot restore the desolated homes, but
we can help the Filipinos to establish
their independence, and we can afford
them support in maintaining it,
"Let US charge off the twenty millions
paid for the Islands as a bad debt; let
US charge off also the more than double
twenty millions which this fighting has
already cost as as the price of a bitter
but salutary lesson. Let us set an eX-
ample of national manliness, good sense
and magnanimity and of fidelity to the
ideal of goodwill among men.
at is a magnificent opportunity to
make real advance In civilization.
Shall we seize it nobly, or let it slip from
our grasp, to our own lasting shame and
unavailing repentance?
ION the issue depends the life or the
death of the American which has been,
which should be, the hope of mankind"