The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-09-29

ment of the question. For example,
he says: 1.-THE. two essential steps up.
on which all agree were the war with
Spain and the ratification of the
treaty, and from these flowed all our
responsibilities" This is not fair
statement. The ratification of the
treaty had string tied to it, viz, the
Bacon resolution. The treaty would
not have been ratified if it could have
been known that Mr.. Hobart would
defeat the Bacon resolution. Public
opinion demanded then that the war
be ended by ratifying the unsatisfact-
ory treaty. 1t demanded then and has
since that the unsatisfactory portion
of the treaty be cured by the Bacon
resolution or some similar act giving
the Philippines the same status as
Cuba. A truthful and complete state
ment would run: "The essential steps
upon which all agree were the war
with Spain, the ratification of the
treaty and our recognition Of the
rights of the Filipinos. From these
flowed all our responsibilities and our
troubles have come from our failure
to carry out the third STEP"
Mr.. Mckinley neatly uses the argu-
mentum nd hominem against Mr.. Bry-
an when he asserts that the demo-
cratic plan Of protectorate also i'm
plies militarism and government with
out consent 1 have no doubt, how
ever, that Mr.. Bryan in his letter OF
acceptance will be able to parry this
stroke and at the same time that he
will modify the only slipshod propo>
sition in his indianapolis speech.
When he said that he would "give the
Filipinos a stable government" he, OF
course, meant that he would assist
them to form such government pre-
cisely as we are doing in Cuba.
Presumably, by virtue of his Office,
Mr.. Mckinley should know the facts
of the Filipino case better than any
one else. Yet many of them he can
not know of his own personal knowl-
edge, and for these he must depend
on other people. Hence it will not be
disrespectful to dispute such facts.
His statement of facts includes
these: There was no alliance between
the Filipinos and the Americans; no
promise of independence was made to
the former by any official of the Unit
ed States; the Filiplnos began the war;
the vast majority. of the population
welcome our sovereignty and have
been loyal to us; the Tagal insurgents
are only "a designing minority" 81
faction" "a small fraction of the
population, a single tribe out of eighty
or more inhabiting the archipelago"
"the insurgents desired to enter Ma
Mia that they might loot it and de-
stroy those not in sympathy with
their selfish and treacherous designs"
they had secretly planned to assassin
ate all foreigners on Feb. %, 1899, and
had even "long before their leader
reached Manila" resolved that they
would later turn upon us, and finally
the Filipino people "have no capacity
yet to go Alone" and are unable to
maintain stable government at home
and absolutely helpless to perform
;r+n oh
His authority for these alleged facts
is partly reports of the commissions
and other officials and partly the
archives Of Aguinaldo's government,
which were captured, forwarded to
Washington and are now being doled
out in n petty way to the press when
ever any political capital can be made
by their publication. Some of these
facts have been denied and some have
been doubted. 1 have space to deal
only with two or three.
Last spring when in Washington l
spoke with several men who occupy
important positions under the admin
istration. l asked them how they
could justify the action of the govern
ment in forcibly depressing the efforts
of an alien people to form an inde-
pendent republic. Their answer was
in almost the identical words of the
president, that the Tagals are n mere
fraction of the population. I denied
their figures and gave rs authority
Cavada's "Historia Estadistica," pub
lished at Manila in 1876. Though deal
ing with Philippine matters, they had
not even heard of the book. They
knew Foreman, Worcester, etc, nj
most by heart, but they did not know
Cavada. A messenger was sent to the
congressional library and to the bu-
reau of education, but the book was
not, in the possession of either. The
Newberry library and the public H.
brary Of this city have each copy of
this remarkable work and any student
who knows Spanish may get the facts
and figures. Cavara's tables show that
the population of the Luzon or Tagal
group of islands was in 1870 1900, 600;
that of the Viscayan group 100000
and that of the Mindanoan group
about 100000.
Much more important than Cavada