Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1899-09-07
OUR RULE IN THE PHILIPPINES.
Dr. Lyman Abbott Replies to the "Eve-
nina Posts SIander of Americans.

Or. Lyman Abbott Replies TO the "Eve-
ming Posts Slander of Americans.
In his weekly magazine. "The out
look" in reply to some sneering observa-
lions by the Chattanooga (Tenn.) "Times"
on our treatment of the Tagals, DIR. Abbott
says
"The American people won liberty for
themselves in the American Revolution,
and straightway opened their doors to the
oppressed of all other lands, and invited
the poor to share the wealth of the new
continent on equal terms with the men
who had won it by their blood and treas
ure They conquered liberty for the
African. and, the war over, taxed them
selves, the South by direct taxation, the
North by generous contributions, to give
the African the same education which
they gave to their own children. Individ
uals have robbed and plundered the In
dians, but the nation. as nation, has eX
pended millions of dollars in giving them
education and industrial civilization-not
always Wisely, but with generosity. By
purchase and by war Americans have won
more than half the territory which they
now possess. They have not only extend
ed the inhabitants the same free instilu
ticns which they themselves enjoy, bur
they have offered the land to any men, OF
any race of religious faith, who would oc.
cupy and cultivate it.
But this is what orr fathers did. Per-
haps we, their sons, have deeenerated.
We have emancipated Cnba. We have
spent millions of dollars and hundreds Of
lives in this war of emancipation. And
with what result II is less than ten
months since the final treaty was signed
by Mckinley. dere, in brief is the re-
cord in Santiago; similar work has been
done in Havana, Guantanamo, Baracoa,
Gibara, Holguin. Santiago was indescrib-
ably filthy. 1t is now as clean as New
York or Boston. Its death rate was near
" 700 week; its death rate NOW does rot
exreed thirty or forty a week. lis stores
We're closed md lis streets idle; now its
streets are full and its stores open and full
Of buyers 1t was without market; its
market now is as we'll supplied as those Of
our best American cities Of equal size. A
year ago there was not a single public
school building in the city; HOW there are
seventeen elementary and grammer
schools, with an average attendance Of
nearly two thousand pupils. Then
government corruption was UNIVERSAL;
fraudulent accounts and the exaction Of
overpayment by officials was the rule; now
they are almost unknown. The courts
are reorganized; laws have been prOmul-
gated guaranteeing rights of persons and
property which for three centuries q
Spanish misrule have been ullnown; bull
fighting and cock fighting are prohibited;
trahesmen are required to give just inca
sure according to standard weights and
measures; Cubans have been appointed
not only to minor offices, but as Mayors;
under United States veto, local sel(-govern-
ment is already well under way. Mean
wkile Christian benevoence has offered to
provide Cubans who wish to teach at home
with free education to fit them for their
work, and has opened free Christian
churches to which already Cubans are
flocking in great numbers. In nine
months one church in Santiago, the Bap-
fist, Las received hundred and forty
members.
"What reason has any one to believe
that the establishment of American sover-
eighty in the Philippines would not be
followed with similar results? What jus
LITIGATION has the Chattanooga Times for
its original aud tie New York Evening
Post for its borrowed SANDER of Amerl-
cans?"