The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-06
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1899.
This paper is Democratic in principles
end is independent in ats UielUs on all local
questions.
The Fight at Manila.

The victory which our brave soldiers
won at Manila. on Saturday, is one of the
most lamentable ever gained by any
people. for it is a climax of National dis
grace. The disgrace. it is needless to say,
does not attach to the soldiers or their
officers. They have lone their duty nobly
and we'll. They have risked their lives
and some have lost their lives in carrying
out the will of the government of their
country.
It is nothing to them whether that gov
m is performing its duty or per-
petrating a crime. They have no right 10
question the policy of the National Adj
ministration. Right or wrong it is their
part to uphold it, for such is military law.
On the other hand, no part of the shame
which overwhelms President Mckinley
and his co-eonspirators attaches to the
soldiers who are the first victims of their
monstrous crime. Blind obedience is the
soldiers rule of life, and his glory is in
living up to it, regardless of the cause.
The lamentable event which has dis
graeed our arms ought to be the maj
blow to McKinleyism. The scales should
drop from the public eyes when our sol
diers are seen slaughtering a people who
desire to be free. as a sequel to a war
undertaken in the name of freedom. So
gross a dishonor has hardly ever before
been brought upon a country by its rulers.
AS to the effect of this fight on the
Treaty prospects, it is hard to prophesy.
on the one hand, it will increase the re-
~luctance of the hostile party to vote for
On moral grounds, they
will be more hostile than ever, seeing that
the native Filipinos are so desperately
opposed to our rule. On selfish grounds,
they will be equally reluctant, because
they will realize. more than ever, the rear
,ful ana %unending iture of blood
and treasure that will be needed to hold
the islands. This, at a time when Alger-
ism is still rampant in army manage
ment, and when Dingleyism is rolling up
a deficit at the rate of eight to ten mil
obstacle to annexation that few conserva-
tive or even sane men can climb over.
On the other hand, the excitable public
will be loath to withdraw our flag under
fire. The National vanity will hardly
tolerate the idea of our being beaten out
of .'our conquest by a force of half
a Besides, as we nave hopelessly
wiped out Spain's hold on the people and
the territory, it is fairly open to doubt
whether we may in morals abandon them
to their own savage destiny.
What we want is a President like
Grover Cleveland, who viii bring wisdom,
patriotism and human instinct to the So
luton of the dilemma. With such a man,
there might be hope of an honorable COM
promise, in which the freedom of the
Filipinos under our protectorate might be
guaranteed. With such a man, our good
faith might be shown by a speedy evacu-
alton of Cuba, and the liberation of that
island to develop its own future. 1t is, of
course, impossible for us to induce the
FilIpinos to believe in our good faith to
them, when we are plainly playing a game
of treachery and tyranny in Cuba, such
as the annals of the world can hardly
naraIlel