The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-01-18
BEyER|DGE'S SPEECH.
The Indiana Senator's Address on
The Philippines.
He Gives the Conclusions which His
Observations Compel-We Should
Not Repudiate Our Duties
in the Far East.


Beveridge, of Indiana, on the Philip
pines, delivered in the senate. Mr..
Beveridge spent several months last
summer in the islands, and gives val
uable information in regard to our
new possessions. Mr.. Beveridge said
In part as follows:
MIR. President:
l address the, senate at this time
because senators and members of the
house on both sides have asked that
give to congress and the country my
observations in the Philippines and
che far east, and the conclusions which
those observations compel; and be-
cause of hurtful resolutions and ut
terances made in the senate, which
will, cost and is costing the lives of
American soldiers.
Mr.. President, the times call for
candor. The Philippines are ours for
ever, territory belonging to the Unit
Ted States" as the constitution calls
them. And just beyond the Philip
pines are China's illimitable markets.
We will not retreat from either. We
will not repudiate our duty in the
archipelago. We will not abandon our
opportunity in the Orient. We will
not renounce our part in the mission
of our race, trustee. under God, of the
civilization of the world. And we will
move forward to our work, not howl
ing our regrets like slaves whipped
to their burdens, but with gratitude
for a task worthy of our strength,
and Thanksgiving to Almighty God
that He has marked us as His chosen
people, henceforth to lead in the re-
generation of the world.
This island empire is the last land
left in all the oceans. If it should
prove mistake to abandon it, the
blunder once made would be irretriev-
able. If it proves a mistake to hold
it, the error can be corrected when
we will; every other progressive ma
tion stands ready to relieve us.
But to hold it will be no mistake.
Our largest trade henceforth must be
with Asia. The Pacific is our ocean.
More and more Europe will manufac-
ture all it needs-secure from it's col
onies the most it consumes. Where
shall we turn for consumers of our
surplus? Geography answers the
question. China is our natural GUS
toner. She is nearer to us than to
England, Germany or Russia, the COM
mercial powers of the present and the
future. They have moved nearer to
China by securing permanent bases
on her borders. The Philippines give
us Il base at the door of all the east.
Lines of navigation from our ports
to the Orient and Australia; from the
1sthmian canal to Asia; from all Ori-
entail ports to Australia, converge at
and separate from the Philippines.
And the Pacific is the ocean of the
commerce of the future. Most future
wars will be conflicts for commerce.
The power that rules the Pacific,
therefore. is the power that rules the
world. And, with the Philippines.
that power is and forever will be the
American republic.
Value of China'a Trade.
China's trade is the mightiest COM
mercial fact in our future. Her for
eign commerce was $3.50, $4,000 in
1897. of which we, her neighbor, had
less than Is per cent, OF which only a
little more than half was merchandise
sold to China by us. We ought to
have so per cent, and we will. And
China's foreign commerce is only be-
ginning. She needs, and in so years
will have, 10000 miles of railway.
Who can estimate her commerce then?
That statesman commits crime
against American trade-against the
American grower of cotton, wheat
and tobacco, the American manufac-
turer of machinery and clothing
who fails to put America where she
commands that trade. Chinese trade
is growing beyond belief; she is spend
ing the revenues of the empire to
finish her railroad into Pekin herself,
and she is in physical possession of
the imperial province of Manchuria. |
Japan's Chinese trade is multiplying
in volume and value; she Is bending
her energy to her merchant marine,
and is located along China's very
coast. But Manila is nearer China |
than Yokohama is. The Philippines
command the commercial situation of |
the entire east. Can America best |
trade with China from San Francisco
or New York? From San Francisco,
of course. But if San Francisco were
closer 10 China than New York is to
Pittsburgh, what then? And Manila
is nearer Hong Kong than Havana is
to Washington. And yet American
statesmen plan to surrender this com
mercial throne of the Orient where
Providence and our soldiers lives
have placed us.
Resources and Size of Islands.
But if they did not command China,
India, the Orient, the whole Pacific
for purposes of offense, defense and
trade, the Philippines are so valuable
in themselves that we should hold
them. l have cruised more than 1000
miles through the archipelago, every
moment surprise at it's loveliness
and wealth. have ridden hundreds
of miles on the islands, every foot of
the way revelation of vegetable and
mineral riches. No land in America
surpasses in fertility the plains and
valleys of Luzon. Rice and coffee, I
sugar and cocoanuts, hemp and tobac-
co, and many products of the temper
ate, as well as tropic zone, grow In
various sections of the archipelago 7
have seen hundreds of bushels of In
dian corn lying in a road fringed with
banana trees. The forests of Negros,
Mindanao, Mindora, Paluan, and parts