Arizona republican., 1899-12-24
Senator HOar Will NOt
 Talk at Large.
ON HIS CHOSEN THEME
He Believes He Can Better Aid the Filipinos on the Floor of the Sen ate-Neither Congress Nor the People He Say aree Ye; Com mitted to the Policy of Imperial ism.

Washington, Dec. 23.-Senator Hoar has written a letter to former Sena- tor Edmunds replying to an invitation to be present at a meeting to be held to discuss the Philippine question: Senator Hoar declines to attend be- cause he thinks that what he will have to say on the Philippine question will be more effective if said in his place in the senate than elsewhere. He adds:
 I have not changed the opinion I formed and expressed last winter ex- cept that it has been confirmed and strengthened by what has happened since. If we had dealt with the peo- pie of the Philippine islands as we un- dertook to deal with the people of Cuba, who We declared-and they cer- talnly had no better title-of right ought to be free and independent; if. instead of undertaking to buy them, and then undertaking to subiugate them by force, we had assured them of our purpose to respect their rigths, to protect them against foreign interfer- ence, to aid them, to restore order. and to leave them, whenever they should desire, to the blessing of freedom and Of elf-government, we should have had no war. We should have had no loss of life. We should have had no | large expenditure of money. We should not have trampled on the doctrines up- on which our own institutions are 1 founded. We should not have contra | dicted the pledge of our fathers We ] should not have dishonored our own great history. We should not have in- cured the undying hatred of the peo- pie of the Philippines islands. We should have received from their. grati- tude everything in the way of commer- ! cial advantage or advantages of mili- tary or naval station that their grat- itude could bestow. We should have the glory-with which the glory of no other country in history could be com pared-of being the great liberator in both hemispheres.
 Terrible mischief has been already accomplished through the blunder of last winters treaty. But it is not too late to retrace our steps. Congress has not yet committed itself to the policy of imperialism. Still less are the Amer ican people so committed It is not too late to assure the people of the Philippine islands that we will not trample them under foot or compel them to obey us against their will. That we will protect them against for eign cupidity; that we will aid them to restore order; that we will help them in every way in our power to es- tablish for themselves such govern ment as they may desire; that there after our relations to them should be only those of friends and equals.
 If that were done, peace could be restored in an hour. Order and pros perity and happiness would prevail in- stead of war and devastation. The flag of the United States, which it is sought to make the symbol of conquest and oppression, would be, as it has ever been till now, a symbol of liberty and of hope to all the nations of the earth. Withdrawn only from territory over which it waves without right, it would continue to wave over that moral field over which is its rightful supremacy, and from which it could never be 1 hauled down."
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