Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-01-18
POWERFUL AND JUST REBUKE.
PHILADELPHIA Press.

A POWERFUL AND JUST REBUkE.
Philadelphia Pressl
Senator Beveridge's speech on the Phil
ippine question was worthy the large audi
ence and profound attention which honor
ed this maiden utteralce of the Indiana
Senator. The new Senators are usually
silent may be often due to the fact that
they know they have nothing to say that
more experienced Senators cannot cay bet
ter, but Mr.. Beveridge had the advantage
of speaking with more experience and bet
ter knowledge than bis peers. Unlike
them, he has been to the land whereof he
speaks and learned bis lesson from the
original human documents. The Senate
listened, therefore, as to one who had a
message to deliver, and those whose minds
were at all open were made the wiser for
listening.
Senator Hoar endeavored to break the
force OF the speech by an immediate reply.
He found fault that Mr.. Beverage dealt
more with the resources and material pos-
sibiities Of the Philippines and the oharsc-
ter of its people than with the words
"right, justice, duty and freedom" which
he claims were absent from his eloquent
speech Mr.. Hoar evidently believes that
this criticism Is inadequate and he prom
ises to reply more deliberately at another
time. The Massachusetts Senator was
clearly disturbed by the speech Of the
young Senator from Indiana, and especial
ly by this strong testimony to the pernici-
GUS effect of his own utterances -
Reluctantly, and only from a sense of
duty, am forced to say that American
opposition to the war has been the chief
factor in prolonging It,
Had Aguinaldo not understood that In
America, even in the American Congress,
even here in the Senate, he and his cause
were supported; had he not known that it
was proclaimed on the stump and in the
press Of faction in the United States that
every shot his misguided followers fred
into the breasts of American soldiers was
like the volleys fred by Washlngton's men
against the soldiers of King George, bis In
surrection would have dissolved before it
entirely crystallzed.
The utterances OF American opponents
of the war are read to the ignorant soldiers
of Aguinaldo and repeated in exaggerated
form among the common people. Arms
and ammunition were shipped from Asiat-
ic ports to the Filipinos by wretches claim
Ing American citizenship, and these acts
of infamy were coupled by the Maylays
with American assaults on our Government
at home.
The Filipinos do not understand free
speech, and therefore our tolerance of
American assaults on the American Gov
eminent means to them that our President
Is in the minority, or be would not permit
what appears to them such reasonable
criticism. It is believed and stated In Luz
on, Panay and Cebu that the Filipinos
have only to fight, harass, retreat, break
up into small parties, il necessary, az they
are doing now, but by any means hold out
until the next Presidential election, and
our forces will be withdrawn. All this has
aided the enemy more than climate, arms
and battle. Senators, ] lave heard these
reports myself; have talked with the peo'
pie; have seen our mangled boys in the
hospital and field; l have stood on the
firing line and beheld our dead soldiers,
their faces turned to the pitiless southern
sky; and, in sorrow rather than anger,
say to those whose voices in America have
cheered those misguided natives on to
shoot our soldiers down that the blood of
those dead and wounded boys of ours ison
their hands, and the flood Of all the years
can meyer wash that stain away. In sor'
row rather than anger | say these words,
for earnestly believe that our brothers
knew not what they did.
1t is time that this truth was brought
directly home to Senator Hoar and the
other Americans who by their utterances
here are sacrificing the lives Of our own
soldiers by giving aid and comfort to the
Malays who are warning against the United
States in the Philippine Islands.