New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-03
DEALING WITH TRAITORS.

Our Government is a patient one. 1t has
endured for months past what no other Gov
eminent of comparable dignity would have en-
dured for three days. Men in this country,
some OF them OF a certain prominence In busl-
ness and social life, have been playing at trea-
son. They have formally organized for that
purpose In corporate capacity they have
maligned and lampooned the President and
other members Of the Government; they have
melted people who are under the lawful au-
thority of this Government to rebel against II;
they have encouraged insurgents to persist In
their rebellion; they have, by false pretences
and menaces dissuaded well-disposed people
from giving to this Government the allegiance
they have wished TO give, and they have at
tempted to arouse discomfort and insubordina-
ton among the soldiers and sailors of the
United States It is not easy to imagine
much more serious offence against the Govern
ment and against the Nation itself. than these
men have deliberately. defantly and insolently
committed. There can, as competent author-
ties declare, be no doubt that they have, I'M
der the laws of the United States rendered
themselves liable TO heavy fines, long terms
of Imprisonment, and exclusion from ever hold
ing office under the Government they have
striven to betray.
Yet. as we have said. our Government has
been amazingly patient with them. And even
now, when their conduct becomes simply I'M
endurable, it tempers its justice with so much
mercy that we might more properly say it deals
with them with mercy slightly tinctured with
justice. 1t will not imprison them, nor even
fine them 1t will not go so far as TO sup
press In this country the reckless screeds they
are putting forth, In which scurrlllty and trea-
son are about equally commingled. 1t merely
DEGREES that their precious stuff shall not be
sent through the United States mails to the
Philippines to cause more trouble there. It
has already caused enough. 1t has caused the
loss Of hundreds OF lives. and the expenditure
of hundreds Of thousands Of dollars. 1t Is re-
sponsble for large share Of the contumaclous
lawbreaking which our troops are striving to
suppress. To say that no more Of Ii shall be
sent thither is rs reasonable as to decree that
q man shall not scatter sparks in powder
magazine
Perhaps it is. after all, best that the Gov
eminent should for the present be thus lenient
with these amateur traitors. Really 1t Is more
severe with them than IL seems. For 1t Is
denying them the martyrdom which some OF
them doubtless so much crave. 1t is preventing
them from doing the mischief In the Philip
pines which they would 80 much like to DO
And II is splendidly expressing the contempt
which It and the overwhelming majority of the
American people feel for them by letting them
go on with their spteful sputtering all they
nlease in this country where their insignia
canoe and impotence, and the utter falsity of
their vituperatlon, are all well understood All
the same, they will do uncommonly well to
take this long-delayed action of the Govern
ment as wholesome warning. Playing at
treason may be fun, TO some folks, for time
When 1t results In only the killing OF few
dozen Americans and few hundred or thou
sand Tagas, why should these generous philan-
thropists mind the cost? But when they have
been told TO stop they would better STOP or It
NAV cost something more. To have real
live "antl-expanslonlst" locked up in com
mon, vulgar Jail would be unspeakably dread
full, wouldn't It?