The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-01-11
Senator from Illinois may be sorry
that he spoke before he is finished
with the little affair on Tuesday.
Beveridge on the Philippines

Beveridge on the Philippines
SENATOR BEvERIDGE, the junior
Senator from Indiana, has made a
speech in the Senate that will no doubt
form the ground work of the succeed
ing discussion of the Philippine que2-
ton. Shortly after his election to his
seat in the Senate Senator Beveridge
went to the Philippines, and from that
time up to few days ago, when he
returned to this country, he engaged
himself in studying the people and the
country. He had maintained Sphynx
like silence on the subject up to the
time of his speech in the Senate, and
the fact that he has refused to be in
| terviewed on the subject, together
with the fact that he had given the
matter so careful investigation, had
aroused the people of the nation, who
are paying any attention whatever to
the discussion or the future of the
islands, to keen interest in what he
might say when the moment came for
him to give his views to the public.
AS regards frankness, pointedness
and plain dealing with facts, as they
appeared to him, the speech of the In
diana Senator was triumph. He did
not mince matters at sail, but went
right to the point. He practically be-
gan by saying that the United States
would hold the Philippines. The reas-
ons for our so doing he found many
and potent. He reiterated what other
authorities who have visited the islands
have said relative to the richness of
the islands themselves. He spoke of
their great productiveness and the
market that, with a little schooling,
they would offer to our products. He
laid stress on the value of the markets
of China, the rush of powers for con-
troll, or at the least, participation in
that great opportunity; he pointed out
the strategic Importance of the Philip
pines as the meeting and crossing
point of all the great sea highways of
the East, the key to the ocean of the
commerce of the future and Americas
basis of commercial operations in the
Orient.
Senator Beveridge says the people of
the Philippines are not capable of self
government. Indeed he goes SO far as
to say that in his opinion there are not
100 men in the whole 100000 who
who have anything like an adequate
idea of self government. The Anglo
Saxon conception of freedom and self
government and the responsibilities
pertaining thereto is impossible to-
them at the present. They are Ma1ays
who have had nothing of instruction
except by the Spaniards in the 1atter's
worst estate. They have the lesson of
practical government yet to learn. 1t
took the Ang1o-Saxon people 1000
years to learn it. These Ma1ays cam
not learn it in a day.
In speaking of the works of the anti
expansionists Senator Beverage dealt
their ignorant harangues, obstructed
the work of the administration and
prolonged the slaughter of American
soldiers in the Philippines. The Sen
ator was speaking of facts that he had
gained from his own observations.
They told the same story of life sacri
feed to the mistaken beliefs of Aguin-
a1do's friends in the Senate of the
United States as was told in the letter
of the deceased Gen. Lawton. There
was no questioning the truth of the
charge backed by the facts related by
Senator Beveridge.
On the whole the speech of the SEN
ator from Indiana was a strong one.
It may we'll form the basis of future
discussion of the question. 1t states
facts that are, many of them, new and
repeats others that have been stated
before, in manner and with a spirit
of truthfu1ness that emphasizes their
force. It is business-1ike, and deals
with the subject in hand so directly
that whatever the outcome of the
matter may be, there is no doubling
that it will set those to thinking who
have been disposed to content them
selves with theories and generalisa-
tons.