The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-09-17

would be q remedy for certain of the evils,
besides disclosing remedies for others,
Much, he thinks, can be done by taxa
ton and more by "close supervision
and the unsparing excelsior of all un-
healthy, dest ructive and anti-social ele-
ments."
The largest part of the letter is devot-
ed to a discussion OF thu Philippine
problem. Expansion, he says, has been
our historic national policy, and he con-
tends that the expansion in the Philip
pines has been along the same lines as
our expansion into the west, into Texas,
Alaska and the Hawaiian islands, The
doctrine OF the consent Of the governed
has never been extended by
us in the past as 1t is now
sought to extend 1t. Neither the
whites nor the Indians We're consulted
when Jefferson extended our authority
over the Louisiana purchase, The re-
volt of the Seminole Indians after the
Florida purchase was put down by our
government just as it is now putting
down the insurrection in the Philip
pines. Neither IN the great tract on the
Pacific coast which was annexed after
the Mexican war did we ask or obtain
the consent of the government, nor in
Alaska nor in Hawaii. Our government
OF our newest possessions the Governor
contends is just the same as our govern
ment of new possessions has always
been when they were in
habited by a people incapable of self
government, as he claims the Filipinos
and the Porto Ricans to be. 1t was years
before the Douisianians We're given self
government, and the Alaskans have not
self-government today. The doctrine
that the Constitution follows the flag,
was not seriously considered by Jeffer-
son or any other great party leader OF
that time. 1t was the product of later
period, and was originated for the sole
purpose Of justifying the extension OF
slavery.
Governor Roosevelt scouts the idea
that our policy in the Philippines and
our other possessions leads TO mill
tarism or Imperialism. The war with
Spain destroyed the last vestige of i'm
perialism on this continent, and none
OF our acts since then has had any ten
dency to revive it here or elsewhere.
Our army is not so large now in pro-
portion to our population as it was
In the days of Wayne. We hava not one
regular for every thousand Inhabitants
In the Governors opinion the ''onIy
certain way of rendering it necessary
for our Republic to enter on a career
of militarism would be to abandon the
Philippines to their own tribes, and al
the same time either TO guarantee Z
stable government among them or Il
guarantee them agains5 outside inter
ference. THAT is to follow Mr.. Bryan
plan. A far larger army would be re
quired to carry out policy OF that kind
than to secure order under the American
flag.
The Governor insists that the wei
fare of the Philippines people shall IRIS
be considered in governing those Islands
and to attain that end he points GU
That our officials must BIZ selected by the
birth. 10 turn over the islands tC
Aguinaldo and his followers at the pres
emit time the Governor insists would mo-
be to give self government to the islandi
but would simply put the islanders al
the mercy of syndicate of Chinese half
breeds under whom corruption woLlC
flourish more freely than it tiourisheC
under Tweed, while tyrannical oppres
sion would obtain to a degree only posi-
bic under such an oligarchy