Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-07-18

being where it does not exist. with the
nope OF gaining some petty party ad-
vantage. at no matter what cost OF
ruin to the nation.
They mouth about Imperialism and
Militarism knowing that there is not
one shred of truth in what they say,
Knowing If they know anything, that
their words are putting a premium up
on trouble in every island from which
the Spaniards have been driven; ano
caring nothing because they wish tt
purchase party success even at the cost
of dishonesty to the flag. of death and
suffering to the men who fight under
the flag. Bitter indeed is the cup they
hold out to the nation to drink and
thrice bitter it will be for the nation if
it does not spurn it.
What they say about Cuba and Puerto
Rico need not detain us for a moment.
In Puerto Rico we now have Governor
Allen in charge. We have estab lished a
system under which the island is advanc-
ing by leaps and bounds to prosperity. In
Cuba we have put General Leonard Wood
In charge, and all the preliminary steps
nave been taken to give to the people of
the island their own government Our
pledge to Cuba shall of course be kept
General Woods administration is
synonym for honesty and cleanliness, and
the minute that fraud was discovered in
the postal department the wrong-doers
were hunted down in unsparing pursuit /;
and the best possible proof was thereby
given that We meant what we said and
that governmental cleanliness would be
obtained in the only possible way by the
unsparing cutting out of corruption
wherever ii was found.
we now come to the Philippines. and to
the general question: Of expansion. Many
of the positions taken by the Populistic
Democracy at the moment are so papa-
pable bad faith that to state them is suf-
ficient. 1t is hardly necessary to discuss
what they say about the constitution
party never championed the doctrine thus
set forth save in the dark days when 1t
danced to any tune which the apostles
of slavery chose to pipe.
When under jefferson the great West
beyond the Mississippi was acquired.
when. largely through the Instrumental
ity of Jackson, Florida was added to the
Union, the new provinces with their In
dian populations We're governed precisely
and exactly on the theory under which
the Philippines are now governed. Pres
ident jefferson secured the Louisiana
purchase Just as President Mckinley Sc
cured the Philippines. and Andrew Jack
son Warrcd against the SeminoieS when
We had acquired Florida from Spain pre-
cisely as General Macarthur is now war
ring against the bandits among the Ia
gals, in Luzon. Unless we are willing to
deprive jefferson and Jackson of the
need Of honor which has been held to be
peculiarly theirs. we cannot deny the
same nigh praise to President Mckinley.
At Kansas City the men engaged in
preaching the gospel Of dishonor and re-
pudiation s0lcmnly asserted that I'm
peraliSm abroad VIII lead quickly and in
cVitably to dcspOtiSm at home" You
men Of Minnesota and the bakOtaS who
are here. this evening. can appreciate the
fdtUblI;stItGS AI that nv
simple process of thinking whether your
liberties have been abridged by the re-
turn of the Minnesota and Dakota troops
who won such honor of themselves in the
Philippines. There are Seometrical propn-
stions 50 essentially ABSURD that mathe-
maticians hold their statement 10 he
equivalent To their refutatlo1. So it Is
with this proposition
If it were worth while | would point
out its dishonesty and insinceritv. But
fragrant though these are. its absurdity
is much more fragrant that nothing
need be said. So il is with their cant
about niiiitarism, and Intimidation AMI
oppression at home as following what
abroad We cannot argue with them
on this proposition. because no serious
man thinks for one moment that they be-
lieve what they assert.
During the great Civil War there were
many preachers of the gospel of disloyal
ty among the so-called Copperheads of
the North. and these men like their rep
reSentatlNeS among our opponents To-
day, prophesied the subversion of the
country when the great armies of Grant
and Sherman should come back from the
war; but the great armies of Grant and
Sherman returned to civil life and were
swallowed up among their fellow citizens
without a ripple. considera bic army
was kept for a year or two on the inaian
states: but it never entered the head of
a human being to attempt what the Cop
perhead prophets of disaster had frant-
nlI In ar a " S
saw regiments and brigades and divisions
return from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the
Philippines to be disbanded and swal-
lowed up in the mass of the people. II
volunteers, and If regulars, to resume
their ordinary work in fort and canton
ment; and after greeting chem on the
day they returned. the bulk OF the peo-
pie would never have been able to tell,
except by the newspaper, whether they
had come back or not.
OF all idle chatter the talk of danger
of militarism is the idlest The army We
have now is relatively to the population
of the country less in size than it has
been again and again during the last
century and a quarter, in times when We
had only our own Indians to guard
against. In Washinston's administration.
General Wayne spent some three years in
Ohio warning against the Tagais of that
day, with under him an army larger in
proportion to the then population of the
nation than all our present national
forces. regulars and volunteers combined.
and there is just as little danger from
the evils of militarism now as there was
then.
1t is as utter folly TO talk of our liber-
ties being menaced by the existence of a
force capable of keeping order in our
outlying possessions now as 1t would have
been to talk of their being menaced in
the 70's by the soldiers who followed Gus
ter and his fellows against the Comanche,
Apache and Sioux.
No our opponents mean nothing, and
know that they mean nothing. when they
pirate about mlitarism. and attempt 20
say that they favor expansion but are
against imperialism They used pre-
cisely the same arguments six years ago
against our taking Hawaii that they now
use gainst our taking the Philippines.
They pulled down our flag in Hawaii just
as they now wish to pub it down in the
Philippines. We had to undo their work
in Hawaii, just as in the end, but at an
infinite cost of bloodshed and woe, we
would have to do in the Philippines.
should they be successful in this election.
Yet not one of them now would dream of
sa wing that we Were not right about IIa-
wall. In fact they would not do 50, when
by a strange irony the Kansas City con-
vention had to rely upon the vote Of Ha-
wall before il could settle what its views
were on the financial system Of our coun |
try.
As regards the Philippines. even the
Kansas City convention felt that they
had to propose some policy. and what
they propose is that we should first give |
them a stable form of government, sec |
,uI iol,par1pnPp and third protection |