The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-24
Turner's Rehash.


Philippine question did not disappoint
public expectation, only because the
worst was expected OF him. No voter
in the state &C Washington believed him
capable Of expressing fairly the views
and wishes OF a majority Of his con-
stitushts. None assumed that the pub
lie interest or the national honor or the
larger cause Of humanity and civiliza-
ton could charm him from his DISPOSE
ton to arraign savagely the admins
tration and all for which 1t stands. With
the bitterness of all the renegade tribe
and the virulence Of disappointment and
failure, he was sure to maintain to the
end his position as an uncompromising
assaiiant and obstructionist.
His speech could not possess logic.
but it lacks even the poor charm of
originality. 1t has all been said before
ana said better by the men with whom
his broken political fortunes are cast.
1t IL the familiar stock harangue Of the
anti-expansionist, dressed in the droning
language Of those who cannot compre-
bend the growth of the nation and the
movement OF events. There are the
same wild misstatements OF existing
conditions that Hoar. Mason ana Petit
grew have offered as facts, the Same
mistaken conclusions drawn from nc
titious premises. There are the old
charges of deceit, perfidy. greed and OPP
preston which rest on no evidence but
the parrotlike iterations of the partisan
malignant.
When Senator Turner says that our
action has no parallel in the history of
the world from the beginning Of time,
we hear the absurd straining Of the man
to shrek louder than his protesting fel-
lows. His speech is full OF assertions
as superlative and as reckless. He
maintains that the Filipinos are able
to maintain government offering Sc
curfty to liberty. life and property.
Every responsible person qualified to
speak from personal observation says
the exact opposite. Mr.. Turner assumes
to know better, solely on the evidence
Of Ms inner consciousness.
Unprecedented sources inform us that
outside of a few Tagal leaders the mass
Of the natives have no idea of govern
ment. Nearly all of them are ignorant
and many but little above semi-sav-
agery. These are the people to whom is
to be given self-government under the
direction of more intelligent and craft
fer natives. tutored in the school of
Spanish maladministration and edu-
Gated up to a Spanish governor gen.
erals idea Of preserving sacredly life,
liberty and property. There is no foun-
daeion in fact, none in the reports of
those who have investigated for them
selves for this assertion that the FIJI
ipinos are an enlightened and orderly
people. qualified to manage their own
affairs and take their place among the
nations. 1t Is invented for the occasion.
An attempt to force the United States
to act on such a theory is as wicked as
1t would be disastrous to the Filipnos
should we adopt it.
1t must be left to the public to decide
whether the fault lies with Senator Tur-
ners intelligence or his political hon
esty. We will not pretend to explain
how he could believe the absurd and
Impossible things that he puts forth as
solemn truths. or how. knowing them to
be false. he could assert them He
knows that there is but one practical
duty possible for this nation: that It
cannot withdraw from the Philippines,
leaving there anarchy and the horrid
clash of warning tribes. ending only in
Enthusiastically by the more forceful and
1nscruuuloas. who would establish
enceher reigr Of oppression ana in
u}0uity. HsseSuoses 70 agnore- ths facts